Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 1056770
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
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Time Co-ordinates(UT) |
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Problem Reports
No Problem Report Found in the Database
RAPID Cruise PO345 Underway Navigation Data Quality Report
There are two large gaps in all channels with no data from 23:13 29/11/2006 to 07:59 30/11/2006 and 01:24 03/12/2006 to 08:26 03/12/2006.
Bathymetry
The data coverage of the bathymetry channel is low. Therefore, GEBCO 15-Second grid data have been included to give a better temporal coverage. The accuracy of the GEBCO 15-Second grid spatial averaging of the data should be considered when using these data. Where available, the bathymetry data compare well to the GEBCO data.
Ship's speed
Channel APSAZZ01 has negative values which have been flagged suspect.
Roll and Pitch
It appears as if the Ashtech GPS has failed to correctly record ROLLGP01 and PTCHGP01 values from 04:43:00 28/11/06 until the end of the cruise just returning 0 values during this time. These values have been flagged as suspect.
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
Ashtech GG24 receiver
The GG24 is an all-in-view Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) receiver that blends GPS and GLONASS into a single position solution. This receiver uses all available satellites from both systems to obtain the best position information.
The three-dimensional position and velocity are calculated when tracking any combination of five satellites. Up to five independent measurements are determined every second, with no interpolation or extrapolation from previous solutions.
Specifications
Parameter | Values |
Operating Temperature | -30°C to 55°C |
Sampling frequency | up to 5 Hz |
Receiver channels | 12 L1 GPS + 12 L1 GLONASS |
Real-Time Position Accuracy | 3.2 m (autonomous) 35.0 m (differential) |
Velocity Accuracy | 0.1 knots |
Further details can be found in the manufacturer's specification sheet.
Ashtech Global Positioning System receivers (ADU series)
The ADU series of Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers are designed to give real-time three-dimensional position and attitude measurements. Attitude determination is based on differential carrier phase measurements between four antennas connected to a receiver, providing heading, pitch and roll, along with three-dimensional position and velocity.
The ADU2 model receives information from 48 channels, while the upgraded model (ADU5) uses 56 channels. The ADU5 also features a unique Kalman filter with user selectable dynamic modes to match operating conditions. It also incorporates signals from Satellite Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) and features an embedded 2-channel 300 kHz beacon receiver for easy differential GPS (DGPS) operations.
Specifications
Parameter | ADU2 | ADU5 |
Operational Temperature range: | | |
Sampling frequency | 5 Hz | 5 Hz |
Receiver channels | 48 | 56 |
Accuracy: | | |
Circular Error Probability: | | |
Further details can be found in the manufacturer's specification sheets for the ADU2 andADU5.
RAPID Cruise PO345 Underway Navigation and Bathymetry Instrumentation
The ship is equipped with a Glosnass GG24 and Ashtech ADU2 GPS system along with a gyrocompass and echosounder.
RAPID Cruise PO345 Underway Meteorology, Surface Hydrography and Navigation Series
Cruise details
Dates | 28 November - 07 Decemeber 2006 |
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Principal Scientific Officer | Dr Stuart Cunningham (NOC,S) |
Cruise Report | Kanzow, T. O. and Cunningham, S, A. Collins, J.(ed), 2008. FS Poseidon Cruises P343 04 Oct - 17 Oct 2006 and P345 28 Nov - 07 Dec 2006. RAPID-MOC Autumn 2006 Eastern Boundary and Mid-Atlantic Ridge Moorings Refurbishment Cruises. Southampton, UK, National Oceanography Centre Southampton. (National Oceanography Centre Southampton Cruise Report, 28). |
Cruise PO345 sailed from and returned to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. The cruise was primarily run as an Eastern Boundary and Mid-Atlantic Ridge moorings refurbishment cruise for the RAPID-MOC programme, which monitors the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation at 26.5°N.
Data Processing Procedures
Underway sea surface hydrography, meteorology and ship's navigation data are merged into common files using (UTC) as the primary linking key. Any additional data calibrations are applied as appropriate and are discussed in the individual instrument sections.
Data were transferred to BODC's in-house NetCDF format, QXF, through the BODC Underway Data System (BUDS). During transfer data were time averaged to 60 second intervals. The transfer process also includes the flagging of data which fall outside of the range of acceptable values for each parameter.
Each data channel is visually inspected on a graphics workstation and any spikes or periods of dubious data are flagged as suspect. The capabilities of the workstation screening software allow all possible comparative screening checks between channels. The system also has the facility of simultaneously displaying the data and the ship's position on a map to enable data screening to take oceanographic climatology into account.
RAPID Cruise PO345 Underway Navigation and Bathymetry Processing
BODC processing
All 1 second bathymetric data, were transferred from PSTAR format into BODC internal format (QXF) to allow use of the in-house visualisation tool (EDSERPLO). Data were averaged to 1 minute. Reformatting and data calibration was carried out, and is discussed in the individual instrument sections below. Each data channel was visually inspected and any spikes or periods of dubious data flagged as suspect. The capabilities of the screening software allows comparative screening checks between channels.
Latitude and Longitude
A program was run which locates any gap in the latitude and longitude channels and checks to ensure that the ship's speed does not exceed 15 knots. No excessive ship speeds were found. In the latitude and longitude channels there were multiple gaps of less than 2 minutes which were filled by linear interpolation using the BODC program navint.
Ship's speed
Ship's speed was converted from knots to ms-1 by multiplying by 0.5144.
Distance Run
Distance run was recomputed at BODC using the clean navigation channels.
Project Information
Rapid Climate Change (RAPID) Programme
Rapid Climate Change (RAPID) is a £20 million, six-year (2001-2007) programme of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The programme aims to improve our ability to quantify the probability and magnitude of future rapid change in climate, with a main (but not exclusive) focus on the role of the Atlantic Ocean's Thermohaline Circulation.
Scientific Objectives
- To establish a pre-operational prototype system to continuously observe the strength and structure of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC).
- To support long-term direct observations of water, heat, salt, and ice transports at critical locations in the northern North Atlantic, to quantify the atmospheric and other (e.g. river run-off, ice sheet discharge) forcing of these transports, and to perform process studies of ocean mixing at northern high latitudes.
- To construct well-calibrated and time-resolved palaeo data records of past climate change, including error estimates, with a particular emphasis on the quantification of the timing and magnitude of rapid change at annual to centennial time-scales.
- To develop and use high-resolution physical models to synthesise observational data.
- To apply a hierarchy of modelling approaches to understand the processes that connect changes in ocean convection and its atmospheric forcing to the large-scale transports relevant to the modulation of climate.
- To understand, using model experimentation and data (palaeo and present day), the atmosphere's response to large changes in Atlantic northward heat transport, in particular changes in storm tracks, storm frequency, storm strengths, and energy and moisture transports.
- To use both instrumental and palaeo data for the quantitative testing of models' abilities to reproduce climate variability and rapid changes on annual to centennial time-scales. To explore the extent to which these data can provide direct information about the thermohaline circulation (THC) and other possible rapid changes in the climate system and their impact.
- To quantify the probability and magnitude of potential future rapid climate change, and the uncertainties in these estimates.
Projects
Overall 38 projects have been funded by the RAPID programme. These include 4 which focus on Monitoring the Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC), and 5 international projects jointly funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, the Research Council of Norway and NERC.
The RAPID effort to design a system to continuously monitor the strength and structure of the North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is being matched by comparative funding from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) for collaborative projects reviewed jointly with the NERC proposals. Three projects were funded by NSF.
A proportion of RAPID funding as been made available for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) as part of NERC's Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI). The SBRI aims to stimulate innovation in the economy by encouraging more high-tech small firms to start up or to develop new research capacities. As a result 4 projects have been funded.
Monitoring the Meridional Overturning Circulation at 26.5N (RAPIDMOC)
Scientific Rationale
There is a northward transport of heat throughout the Atlantic, reaching a maximum of 1.3PW (25% of the global heat flux) around 24.5°N. The heat transport is a balance of the northward flux of a warm Gulf Stream, and a southward flux of cooler thermocline and cold North Atlantic Deep Water that is known as the meridional overturning circulation (MOC). As a consequence of the MOC northwest Europe enjoys a mild climate for its latitude: however abrupt rearrangement of the Atlantic Circulation has been shown in climate models and in palaeoclimate records to be responsible for a cooling of European climate of between 5-10°C. A principal objective of the RAPID programme is the development of a pre-operational prototype system that will continuously observe the strength and structure of the MOC. An initiative has been formed to fulfill this objective and consists of three interlinked projects:
- A mooring array spanning the Atlantic at 26.5°N to measure the southward branch of the MOC (Hirschi et al., 2003 and Baehr et al., 2004).
- Additional moorings deployed in the western boundary along 26.5°N (by Prof. Bill Johns, University of Miami) to resolve transport in the Deep Western Boundary Current (Bryden et al., 2005). These moorings allow surface-to-bottom density profiles along the western boundary, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and eastern boundary to be observed. As a result, the transatlantic pressure gradient can be continuously measured.
- Monitoring of the northward branch of the MOC using submarine telephone cables in the Florida Straits (Baringer et al., 2001) led by Dr Molly Baringer (NOAA/AOML/PHOD).
The entire monitoring array system created by the three projects will be recovered and redeployed annually until 2008 under RAPID funding. From 2008 until 2014 the array will continue to be serviced annually under RAPID-WATCH funding.
The array will be focussed on three regions, the Eastern Boundary (EB), the Mid Atlantic Ridge (MAR) and the Western Boundary (WB). The geographical extent of these regions are as follows:
- Eastern Boundary (EB) array defined as a box with the south-east corner at 23.5°N, 25.5°W and the north-west corner at 29.0°N, 12.0°W
- Mid Atlantic Ridge (MAR) array defined as a box with the south-east corner at 23.0°N, 52.1°W and the north-west corner at 26.5°N, 40.0°W
- Western Boundary (WB) array defined as a box with the south-east corner at 26.0°N, 77.5°W and the north-west corner at 27.5°N, 69.5°W
References
Baehr, J., Hirschi, J., Beismann, J.O. and Marotzke, J. (2004) Monitoring the meridional overturning circulation in the North Atlantic: A model-based array design study. Journal of Marine Research, Volume 62, No 3, pp 283-312.
Baringer, M.O'N. and Larsen, J.C. (2001) Sixteen years of Florida Current transport at 27N Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 28, No 16, pp3179-3182
Bryden, H.L., Johns, W.E. and Saunders, P.M. (2005) Deep Western Boundary Current East of Abaco: Mean structure and transport. Journal of Marine Research, Volume 63, No 1, pp 35-57.
Hirschi, J., Baehr, J., Marotzke J., Stark J., Cunningham S.A. and Beismann J.O. (2003) A monitoring design for the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 30, No 7, article number 1413 (DOI 10.1029/2002GL016776)
Data Activity or Cruise Information
Cruise
Cruise Name | PO345 |
Departure Date | 2006-11-28 |
Arrival Date | 2006-12-07 |
Principal Scientist(s) | Stuart A Cunningham (National Oceanography Centre, Southampton) |
Ship | FS Poseidon |
Complete Cruise Metadata Report is available here
Fixed Station Information
No Fixed Station Information held for the Series
BODC Quality Control Flags
The following single character qualifying flags may be associated with one or more individual parameters with a data cycle:
Flag | Description |
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Blank | Unqualified |
< | Below detection limit |
> | In excess of quoted value |
A | Taxonomic flag for affinis (aff.) |
B | Beginning of CTD Down/Up Cast |
C | Taxonomic flag for confer (cf.) |
D | Thermometric depth |
E | End of CTD Down/Up Cast |
G | Non-taxonomic biological characteristic uncertainty |
H | Extrapolated value |
I | Taxonomic flag for single species (sp.) |
K | Improbable value - unknown quality control source |
L | Improbable value - originator's quality control |
M | Improbable value - BODC quality control |
N | Null value |
O | Improbable value - user quality control |
P | Trace/calm |
Q | Indeterminate |
R | Replacement value |
S | Estimated value |
T | Interpolated value |
U | Uncalibrated |
W | Control value |
X | Excessive difference |
SeaDataNet Quality Control Flags
The following single character qualifying flags may be associated with one or more individual parameters with a data cycle:
Flag | Description |
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0 | no quality control |
1 | good value |
2 | probably good value |
3 | probably bad value |
4 | bad value |
5 | changed value |
6 | value below detection |
7 | value in excess |
8 | interpolated value |
9 | missing value |
A | value phenomenon uncertain |
B | nominal value |
Q | value below limit of quantification |