Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 751216

• Metadata Summary

• Problem Reports

• Data Access Policy

• Narrative Documents

• Project Information

• Data Activity or Cruise Information

• Fixed Station Information

• BODC Quality Flags

• SeaDataNet Quality Flags

Metadata Summary

Problem Reports

No Problem Report Found in the Database

Data Access Policy

Open Data supplied by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

You must always use the following attribution statement to acknowledge the source of the information: "Contains data supplied by Natural Environment Research Council."

Narrative Documents

Instrument description

Lockheed Martin Sippican T-5 XBT Probe

The Expendable Bathythermograph system uses a sea water ground. As soon as an electrode within the nose of the expendable probe makes contact with the water, the circuit is complete and temperature or sound velocity data can be telemetered to the ship-board data processing equipment. The T-5 XBT Probe can be used within a maximum depth of 1830 m, with a rated ship speed of 6 knots and has a vertical resolution of 65 cm.

Manufacturer specifications can be found here

BODC Processing

The data arrived at BODC in 27 ASCII format files representing the casts taken during JR20071029. These were reformatted to the internal QXF format using BODC transfer funciton 388. The following table shows how the variables within the ASCII files were mapped to appropriate BODC parameter codes:

The reformatted data were visualised using the in-house EDSERPLO software. Suspect data were marked by adding an appropriate quality control flag, missing data by both setting the data to an appropriate value and setting the quality control flag.

Instrument Description

XBT Unit and Auxiliary Sensors

Project Information

BAS Long Term Monitoring and Survey

Introduction

The Long Term Monitoring and Survey project (LTMS) has been running since the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) was created. This project is one of the BAS core projects, with several groups of scientists collecting various types of data e.g biological, geological, atmospheric, among others.

Data collection is achievable through a wide scope of instruments and platforms, e.g. the Antarctic research stations, autonomous instrument platforms deployed on or from BAS research ships, BAS aircrafts, satellite remote sensing and others.

Scientific Objectives

This project was implemented in order to measure change and variability in the Earth system. Its long term duration allows for the monitoring of processes that could be missed in shorter term studies and experiments. The data collected is also used to check and improve the reliability of models used to stimulate and predict the behavior of the Earth system.

The main objectives are:

• Topographic survey
• Geosciences survey
• Biological survey and monitoring
• Atmospheric and oceanographic monitoring

Data Availability

The data sets obtained through this project are available to the academic community.

Data Activity or Cruise Information

Cruise

Complete Cruise Metadata Report is available here

Fixed Station Information

Fixed Station Information

Western Core Box

The British Antarctic Survey undertakes cruises to determine krill biomass as part of the ongoing assessment of the status of the marine ecosystem in the region of South Georgia. This unique time series, known as the Western Core Box, which has taken place since 1996 is funded by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) British Antarctic Survey Long Term Monitoring programme.

The survey area is located in an on and off shelf survery area (figure.1), which comprises of an acoustic grid survey of 8 transects each of 80 km in length. Standard data collection includes underway biological echosounder acoustic transaects, CTD profiles, stratified and targetted RMT8 hauls of macrozooplankton and micronekton and a set of moorings which provide temporal coverage and a year round set of observations.

The specific aims of the WCB are:

• To quantify the interannual variability and long-term change in the mesoscale distribution and abundance of Antarctic krill.
• To quantify the the interannual variability and long-term change in the mesoscale distribution and abundance of other plankton/micronekton.
• To examine interannual varaibility in the context of environmental variability (climate variability).
• To examine prey availiability in the context of predator and fishery demand.

Figure 1. Western Core Box Survey Area (BAS, 2017).

A list of Western Core Box cruises are shown below.

References

British Antarctic Survey (2017). POETS-WCB. Available at: https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/poets-wcb/ [Accessed 2017].

Related Fixed Station activities are detailed in Appendix 1

BODC Quality Control Flags

The following single character qualifying flags may be associated with one or more individual parameters with a data cycle:

SeaDataNet Quality Control Flags

The following single character qualifying flags may be associated with one or more individual parameters with a data cycle:

Appendix 1: Western Core Box

Related series for this Fixed Station are presented in the table below. Further information can be found by following the appropriate links.

If you are interested in these series, please be aware we offer a multiple file download service. Should your credentials be insufficient for automatic download, the service also offers a referral to our Enquiries Officer who may be able to negotiate access.