Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 1816186

• 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

RRS James Clark Ross Cruise JR17002 Sea Surface Hydrography Data Quality Document

Sea surface hydrography sensors

Assessment of the flow meter suggests the pumped seawater supply was switched on from the 31/12/2017 12:07:00. Data were flagged suspect until the sensors stabilised. (BODC assessment).

The pumped seawater supply was turned off on the 22/01/2018 18:12:00. Data were flagged suspect from this time. (BODC assessment).

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

SeaBird Digital Oceanographic Thermometer SBE38

The SBE38 is an ultra-stable thermistor that can be integrated as a remote temperature sensor with an SBE21 Thermosalinograph or an SBE 45 Micro TSG, or as a secondary temperature sensor with an SBE 16 plus, 16plus-IM, 16plus V2, 16plus-IM V2 or 19plus V2 SEACAT CTD.

Temperature is determined by applying an AC excitation to reference resistances and an ultra-stable aged thermistor. The reference resistor is a hermetically sealed VISHAY. AC excitation and ratiometric comparison using a common processing channel removes measurement errors due to parasitic thermocouples, offset voltages, leakage currents and gain errors.

The SBE38 can operate in polled sampling, where it takes one sample and transmits the data, or in continuous sampling.

Specifications

Further details can be found in the manufacturer's specification sheet.

WET Labs WETStar Fluorometers

WET Labs WETStar fluorometers are miniature flow-through fluorometers, designed to measure relative concentrations of chlorophyll, CDOM, uranine, rhodamineWT dye, or phycoerythrin pigment in a sample of water. The sample is pumped through a quartz tube, and excited by a light source tuned to the fluorescence characteristics of the object substance. A photodiode detector measures the portion of the excitation energy that is emitted as fluorescence.

Specifications

By model:

All models:

Further details can be found in the manufacturer's specification sheet, and in the instrument manual.

WETLabs C-Star transmissometer

This instrument is designed to measure beam transmittance by submersion or with an optional flow tube for pumped applications. It can be used in profiles, moorings or as part of an underway system.

Two models are available, a 25 cm pathlength, which can be built in aluminum or co-polymer, and a 10 cm pathlength with a plastic housing. Both have an analog output, but a digital model is also available.

This instrument has been updated to provide a high resolution RS232 data output, while maintaining the same design and characteristics.

Specifications

Further details are available in the manufacturer's specification sheet or user guide.

RRS James Clark Ross Cruise JR17002 Surface Hydrography Instrument Description Document

The sea surface hydrographical suite of sensors was fed by the pumped-seawater, non-toxic supply. The seawater intake was located at 6.5 m below the sea surface. The following surface hydrology sensors were fitted:

SeaBird MicroTSG Thermosalinograph SBE 45

The SBE45 MicroTSG is an externally powered instrument designed for shipboard measurement of temperature and conductivity of pumped near-surface water samples. The instrument can also compute salinity and sound velocity internally.

The MicroTSG comprises a platinum-electrode glass conductivity cell and a stable, pressure-protected thermistor temperature sensor. It also contains an RS-232 port for appending the output of a remote temperature sensor, allowing for direct measurement of sea surface temperature.

The instrument can operate in Polled, Autonomous and Serial Line Sync sampling modes:

• Polled sampling: the instrument takes one sample on command
• Autonomous sampling: the instrument samples at preprogrammed intervals and does not enter quiescence (sleep) state between samples
• Serial Line Sync: a pulse on the serial line causes the instrument to wake up, sample and re-enter quiescent state automatically

Specifications

Further details can be found in the manufacturer's specification sheet.

RRS James Clark Ross Cruise JR17002 Surface Hydrography Processing Procedures Document

Originator's Data Processing

The sea surface hydrography measurements were performed by a Sea Bird electronics thermosalinograph in the ship's flow through system and by a temperature sensor located near the flow through intake, at the hull. The depth of the flow through intake was 5.5 m. The data streams were logged every second to the SCS system and merged into a comma separated file format, and logged to the Oceanlogger.ACO file. The header information was stored in the associated .TPL files.

BODC Data Processing

The files were reformatted to BODC internal format using standard data banking procedures. All files were averaged to 60 second intervals. The following table shows how the variables within the files were mapped to appropriate BODC parameter codes:

Calibrations

Field Calibrations

No calibration against independent variables were applied to these data.

Manufacturers Calibrations

Transmissometer

The beam attenuation (atten) was derived from beam transmission (beamtrans) [%] as follows:

atten [per m] = (-1/ pathlength ) ln(beamtrans /100)

where pathlength = 0.25 m.

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.