Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 1650732

• 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

Wave Hub site CTD profiles May 2012: Quality Report

Data looping issue:

During data screening it was found that the data submitted by the originator had a significant looping problem caused by the absence of certain Seabird data processing stages during the original processing. In light of this, BODC made the decision to apply the bin average procedure to remove the loops in order to make the data more useful to the end user.

The un-edited files, as submitted by the originator,are available on request from BODC.

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

Sea-Bird SBE 19 and SBE 19plus SEACAT Profiler CTDs

The SBE 19 SEACAT Profiler is a self-contained, battery powered, pumped CTD system designed to measure conductivity, temperature, and pressure in marine or fresh water environments to depths of 10,500 meters. It was replaced by the SBE 19plus model in 2001. An updated version of this instrument is the SBE 19plus V2, which incorporates an electronics upgrade and additional features, with six differentially amplified A/D input channels, one RS-232 data input channel, and 64 MB FLASH memory.

The standard CTD unit comes with a plastic housing (rated to 600 m), although this can be replaced by titanium housing for depths up to 7000 m. It is typically used for CTD profiling although a conversion kit is available for mooring deployments. The CTD can also be attached to an SBE 36 CTD Deck Unit and Power/Data Interface Module (PDIM) for real-time operation on single-core armored cable up to 10,000 m.

Specifications

*Measurements outside this range may be at slightly reduced accuracy due to extrapolation errors.

Options and accessories

Additional sensors can be attached to the CTD, including:

• high accuracy Paroscientific Digiquartz pressure sensor (depth range 0 to 20, 60, 130, 200, 270, 680, 1400, 2000, 4200, 7000 or 10500 m; accuracy 0.02% of full scale; resolution 0.0025% of full scale)
• Dissolved Oxygen (SBE 43 DO Sensor)
• pH* (SBE 18 pH Sensor or SBE 27 pH/ORP Sensor)
• fluorescence
• radiance (PAR)
• light transmission
• optical backscatter (turbidity)

The standard SBE 5M pump may be replaced by an SBE 5P (plastic housing) or 5T (titanium housing) pump for use with dissolved oxygen and/or other pumped sensors. Further details can be found in the manufacturer's SBE 19plus V2 instrument specification or theSBE 19 andSBE 19 plus user guides.

Wave Hub site CTD profiles May 2012: Instrument description

CTD unit and auxiliary sensors

The CTD configuration comprised a Sea-Bird SBE 19plus V2 SEACAT CTD.

The table below lists more detailed information about the various sensors.

Wave Hub site CTD profiles May 2012: Originator's processing

The CTD instrument profiled at 15 different stations from 18 May 2012 to 20 May 2012 using the Plymouth University vessel, RV Falcon Spirit which is a 14 m catamaran. Data were collected at 1 second intervals.

Data Processing

Initial data processing was performed using the SeaBird processing software Seasave V7 21d. No additional post-processing was applied to the files.

Field Calibrations

A calibration dip was performed on 20 May 2012 where the CTD was being profiled alongside other CTDs to check for accuracy and drift. No adjustments were made to the CTD files following the calibration profile.

Wave Hub site CTD profiles May 2012: Processing by BODC

Data from 15 CTD profiles arrived at BODC in ASCII files. The following table shows how the variables within the files were mapped to appropriate BODC parameter codes:

During data screening it was found that the data submitted by the originator had a significant looping problem caused by the absence of certain Seabird data processing stages during the original processing. In light of this, BODC made the decision to apply the bin average procedure to remove the loops in order to make the data more useful to the end user. The un-edited files, as submitted by the originator, are available on request from BODC.

The reformatted data were visualised using the in-house visualisation software. Suspect and missing data were marked by adding an appropriate quality control flag.

Project Information

NERC Discovery Science - Wave Hub baseline study

Background

This proposal has been designed to fill urgent scientific gaps in relation to baseline studies in renewable energy test sites and to take advantage of the unique opportunity presented by the development of the Wave Hub demonstrator site.

This project was funded by the NERC grant - NE/I015108/1 Wave Hub baseline study.

It is essential to obtain this information prior to deployment of infrastructure to understand the impact of arrays of wave devices together with the Wave Hub infrastructure. This opportunity has already been lost at other wave energy device testing sites (such as at European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), Orkney), because devices, together with infrastructure such as moorings and cabling have already been installed.

This project is also driven by the need to expand the science capability and resources over the next five years to address the questions which have arisen directly in respect of marine renewable energy development and sustainable use of marine resources. Hence, many of the activities are also viewed as capacity building and skill development within Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) - Partnership for Research in Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMaRE) that are pivotal to address the scientific requirements of the renewable energy sector.

Scientific Objectives

To obtain:

• Detailed oceanographic study at the Wave Hub site and surrounds - covering the whole range of physical, chemical and biological parameters before the deployment of Wave Hub infrastructure and wave energy devices.
• Ensure data acquisition in time and space to allow development of physical and ecosystem models at scales relevant to wave arrays. Ultimately models will make predictive assessments of the extent, timescales and intensity of ecosystem impacts and perturbation resulting from implementation of wave energy arrays.
• Engagement of environmental economists to ensure these same data can be used to develop economic valuation estimates of critical life supporting ecosystem services at scales appropriate to arrays of wave devices for comparison with other uses of marine space.
• To address the questions which have arisen directly in respect of marine renewable energy development and sustainable use of marine resources.

Fieldwork

The data were acquired from the RV Falcon Spirit, the Plymouth University vessel. The small 14m catermaran was used on a daily basis from 13 May 2012 to 24 May 2012 with the idea to capture high quality, spatially resolved field data ahead of the Wave Hub construction.

Instrumentation

Types of instruments/measurements:

• CTDs
• Moored temperature loggers
• VMADCP
• Moored ADCPs
• Towed undulated CTD

Contacts

Data Activity or Cruise Information

Cruise

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:

SeaDataNet Quality Control Flags

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