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Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 1879728


Metadata Summary

Data Description

Data Category Currents -subsurface Eulerian
Instrument Type
NameCategories
Aanderaa RCM 9 IW Recording Current Meter  current meters
Aanderaa conductivity sensor 4319B  salinity sensor
Instrument Mounting null
Originating Country United Kingdom
Originator Ms Jenny Hindson
Originating Organization Marine Scotland Aberdeen Marine Laboratory
Processing Status banked
Online delivery of data Download available - Ocean Data View (ODV) format
Project(s) -
 

Data Identifiers

Originator's Identifier 875/1
BODC Series Reference 1879728
 

Time Co-ordinates(UT)

Start Time (yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm) 2015-11-19 12:45
End Time (yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm) 2015-11-19 15:30
Nominal Cycle Interval 300.0 seconds
 

Spatial Co-ordinates

Latitude 56.15400 N ( 56° 9.2' N )
Longitude 2.87317 W ( 2° 52.4' W )
Positional Uncertainty Unspecified
Minimum Sensor or Sampling Depth 10.0 m
Maximum Sensor or Sampling Depth 10.0 m
Minimum Sensor or Sampling Height 15.0 m
Maximum Sensor or Sampling Height 15.0 m
Sea Floor Depth 25.0 m
Sea Floor Depth Source DATAHEAD
Sensor or Sampling Distribution Fixed common depth - All sensors are grouped effectively at the same depth which is effectively fixed for the duration of the series
Sensor or Sampling Depth Datum Unspecified -
Sea Floor Depth Datum Unspecified -
 

Parameters

BODC CODERankUnitsTitle
AADYAA011DaysDate (time from 00:00 01/01/1760 to 00:00 UT on day)
AAFDZZ011DaysTime (time between 00:00 UT and timestamp)
LCDAEL011Degrees TrueDirection (towards) of water current (Eulerian measurement) in the water body by in-situ current meter and correction to true North
LCSAEL011Centimetres per secondSpeed of water current (Eulerian measurement) in the water body by in-situ current meter
PSALPR011DimensionlessPractical salinity of the water body by conductivity cell and computation using UNESCO 1983 algorithm
TEMPPR011Degrees CelsiusTemperature of the water body

Definition of Rank

  • Rank 1 is a one-dimensional parameter
  • Rank 2 is a two-dimensional parameter
  • Rank 0 is a one-dimensional parameter describing the second dimension of a two-dimensional parameter (e.g. bin depths for moored ADCP data)

Problem Reports

No Problem Report Found in the Database

Data quality report for Marine Scotland current meter moorings

During BODC quality control, data were screened using in house visualisation software. The data were screened and any obvious outliers and spikes were looked at in closer detail and flagged if necessary. There were no data quality comments provided by the originator.

Variability was noted in both the TEMPPR01 and PSALPR01 channels but these periods did not look like anomalous data and so did not require flagging. A 'M' flag was added to a cycle in the LCDAEL01 channel in series 1879741 where the point was a clear outlier when compared to the surrounding data.


Data Access Policy

Open Data

These data have no specific confidentiality restrictions for users. However, users must acknowledge data sources as it is not ethical to publish data without proper attribution. Any publication or other output resulting from usage of the data should include an acknowledgment.

If the Information Provider does not provide a specific attribution statement, or if you are using Information from several Information Providers and multiple attributions are not practical in your product or application, you may consider using the following:

"Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v1.0."


Narrative Documents

Aanderaa Recording Current Meter Model 9/11

The RCM 9/11 is a family of single-point Doppler recording current meters with different casing options to allow working at depths of up to 300 (RCM 9 LW), 2000 (RCM 9 IW) or 6000 (RCM 11) metres. The recording unit is 51.3 cm or 59.5 cm high (RCM 9 and RCM 11, respectively) with a diameter of 12.8 cm.

The RCM is most commonly deployed in an in-line mooring configuration. As it operates under a tilt up to 35° from vertical, it has a variety of in-line mooring applications by use of surface buoy or sub surface buoy. The instrument is installed in a mooring frame that allows easy installation and removal of the instrument without disassembly of the mooring line. The instrument can also be used for direct reading of the various parameters. This is conveniently done due to its compact design, low drag force and easy handling. Data can be stored internally and read after retrieval or be read in real time on deck by use of the profiling cable.

Meter comprises:

  • A Vane Plate (3681) to stabilise the meter during profiling (stops spin).
  • Stainless Steel Mooring Frame made to facilitate easy installation and removal of the instrument by use of two knobs.
  • Doppler Current Sensor (Current speed sensor) - Range of speed recorded 0-300 cm s-1 with a 0.3 cm s-1 resolution.
  • Hall Effect Compass - Direction recorded with 0.35 ° resolution, 5 ° for 0.15 ° tilt and 7.5 ° for 15-35 ° tilt.
  • Thermistor (Temperature sensor) - With selectable wide, low, high and Arctic ranges. Standard range -2.70 to 21.77 °C, accuracy 0.05 °C, resolution 0.1% of selected range, 63% response time (12 sec).
  • Inductive Cell Conductivity Sensor (optional) - Range 0 to 75 mS cm-1, standard resolution 0.002 mS cm-1.
  • Pressure Sensor (optional) - Silicon piezoresistive bridge, standard range 0 to 3500 kPa, resolution 0.1% of range.
  • Turbidity Sensor (optional) - Optical back-scatter sensor, resolution 0.1% of full scale, (RCM 11 depth capacity 2000 m).
  • Oxygen Sensor (optional) - Oxygen optode, range 0 to 500 µM, resolution < 1µM, response time 60 sec, depth capacity 6000 m.
  • Data storage units DSU 2990 and 2990E are standard data storage devices for Aanderaa data collecting instruments.

A built-in quartz clock allows the time of the first measurement to be recorded in the DSU. The measuring system is made up of a self-balancing bridge with sequential measurement of 10 channels and solid state memory. Channel 1 is a fixed reference reading for control purposes and data identification. Channels 2 and 3 represent measurement of current speed and direction. The direction is found by the use of measurements along two orthogonal axis and linking them to true north by use of an internal compass reading. The instrument can operate continuously or in eight intervals from 1 to 120 minutes. At 60-minute recording interval the operating time is more than two years. The current speed and direction are averaged over the measuring interval. Channels 4, 5 and 6 represent temperature, conductivity and pressure respectively.

Further information can be found in the manufacturer's instrument specification.

BODC Processing

Data were received in ASCII format files. The series were transferred to BODC's in-house format. The following table shows how the variables within the file were mapped to the appropriate BODC parameter codes.

Original parameter name Original Units BODC Parameter Code BODC Units Comments
Eastward and Northward current velocity cm.s-1 LCDAEL01 and LCSAEL01 (direction and speed) cm.s-1 and ° Converted by transfer to current direction (Eulerian) in the water column by in-situ current meter and correction to true North, and current speed (Eulerian) in the water column by in-situ current meter
Temperature °C TEMPPR01 °C  
Salinity PSU PSALPR01 Dimensionless Not recorded at all moorings

Following transfer to QXF, the data were visually screened using in house BODC software. Any data considered as suspect were flagged accordingly. The originator's quality control flags were retained during transfer.

Originator's Data Processing

Marine Scotland applied the standard manufacturers' calibrations to all current, temperature and salinity data and produced ASCII files for submission to BODC. Data files (.hmo) were named according to the mooring code and the instrument number. Each current meter file contained eastward and northward velocities and temperature. In cases where the temperature data ran for longer than the current data, the temperature records were saved as separate files appended 't'. Salinity data for each instrument were contained in files appended 's'. Header metadata were collated in additional files (.frm). Speed/Direction distributions (.csd) and harmonic analyses files (.lpr) for the current meter data were also generated.


Project Information


No Project Information held for the Series

Data Activity or Cruise Information

Data Activity

Start Date (yyyy-mm-dd) 2015-11-19
End Date (yyyy-mm-dd) 2015-11-19
Organization Undertaking ActivityMarine Scotland Aberdeen Marine Laboratory
Country of OrganizationUnited Kingdom
Originator's Data Activity Identifier875/1
Platform Categorysubsurface mooring

Marine Scotland current meter mooring 875/1

The Aanderaa RCM 9 IW Recording Current Meter was moored at 56° 9.24'N, 2° 52.39'W in a water depth of 25 m.

The RCM IW was deployed on 19 November 2015 by Marine Scotland from FRV Scotia cruise 1715A. The mooring was recovered a few hours later. Instrumentation details are included in the following table.

Instrument type Serial Number Deployment start Deployment end Instrument depth (m) Comments
Aanderaa Seaguard RCM IW 271 19 NOV 2015 12:45 19 NOV 2015 15:30 10 m Depth of instrument is at half tide.

Cruise

Cruise Name 1715A
Departure Date 2015-11-10
Arrival Date 2015-11-23
Principal Scientist(s)Robert Watret (Marine Scotland Aberdeen Marine Laboratory)
Ship FRV Alba Na Mara

Complete Cruise Metadata Report is available here


Fixed Station Information

Fixed Station Information

Station NameMarine Scotland Mooring Site 875/1
CategoryOffshore location
Latitude56° 9.24' N
Longitude2° 52.39' W
Water depth below MSL25.0 m

Marine Scotland Mooring Site 875/1

Marine Scotland deployed a mooring consisting of a current meter and temperature recorder in the Firth of Forth for three hours on 19 NOV 2015.


Site 875/1
Nominal Latitude (+ve N) 56.154
Nominal Longitude (+ve E) -2.873166667
Water depth 25
Period of data collection 19 NOV 2015 12:45 - 19 NOV 2015 15:30

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
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
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