Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 1976732

• 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

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.

RAPIDMOC Current Meter data processing document

This document outlines the procedures undertaken to process and quality assure current meter data collected under the RAPIDMOC project.

Originator's processing

The raw data are downloaded from the instrument and converted to ASCII format. Data recorded during deployment and recovery are removed.

Once in ASCII format the data are corrected for the following -

• Duplicate timestamps removed

• Sound speed - where a working conductivity and temperature sensor are available, the speed of sound is calculated from the conductivity, temperature and pressure recorded by the instrument and then the u and v velocity components are scaled by a correction factor based on the measured speed of sound divided by 1500m/s (the instrument default speed of sound value). If the conductivity sensor is non-functional then a value for the speed of sound for the whole deployment is input. This is typically calculated from CTD data from a similar depth moored instrument, or from previous deployments or climatology.

• Magnetic variation - value taken from either the WMM or IGRF models using the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Geomagnetic calculators. Although this correction varies with time and will be different from the start to the end of the mooring deployment, the rate of change is small and the difference is typically less than the accuracy of the compass in the current meters, so a value from the middle of the deployment period is used.

Calculating and applying calibrations

Manufacturers calibrations are applied.

Quality Control

Automatic spike removal is performed by using a high-pass filter to identify and remove filtered values that are more than 10 times the mean of the filtered record.

Data were visually inspected for out-lying data and spikes removed. Gaps of less than 24 hours where spikes were removed are linearly interpolated over using data on either side. Missing data after inspection are replaced with -9999.

BODC processing

Data are received after quality checks have been made and calibrations have been applied. The data files are submitted in ASCII format as one file per instrument.

Once the submitted data files are safely archived, the data undergo reformatting and banking procedures:

• The data files are transferred into a common format, a NetCDF subset.

• Standard parameter codes are assigned that accurately describe the data (see Parameter mapping section below).

• Unit conversions are applied, if necessary, so that units are standardised (see Parameter mapping section below).

• Data values of -9999 are replaced by the appropriate absent data value.

• The data are screened visually and any spikes or instrument malfunctions can be clearly labelled with quality control flags.

• Comprehensive documentation is prepared describing the collection, processing and quality of each data series.

• Detailed metadata and documents are loaded to the database and linked to each series so that the information is readily available to future users.

Parameter mapping

The following describes the parameters contained in the originator's files and their mapping to BODC parameter codes:

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 - project MOCHA) 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) - Western Boundary Time Series (WBTS) project.

The UK-led monitoring array system was recovered and redeployed annually until 2008 under RAPID funding. From 2008 until 2015 the array continued to be serviced annually under RAPID-WATCH funding. From 2015 until 2021 the array was serviced under RAPID-AMOC funding. Since 2022 the servicing of the array has continued to be funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The US-led projects are funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (MOCHA project) and NOAA Office of Climate Observations (WBTS project).

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

Data Activity

RAPID Moored Instrument Rig EB2#2

This rig was deployed as part of the Eastern Boundary (EB) array of the RAPIDMOC project.

The rig was anchored and kept erect by a 40" steel sub-surface float with Argos beacon and supplemented by groups of smaller buoyancy attached along the mooring.

Instruments deployed on the rig

The deepest instrument (Sea-Bird SBE37 SMP MicroCAT #3488) was lost.

Related Data Activity activities are detailed in Appendix 1

Cruise

Complete Cruise Metadata Report is available here

Fixed Station Information

Fixed Station Information

RAPIDMOC Eastern Boundary (EB) Array

The Eastern Boundary Array defines a box in which moorings are deployed at the eastern side of the North Atlantic as part of the RAPIDMOC project. The box region has latitudinal limits of 23.5° N to 29° N and longitudinal limits of 12° W to 25.5° W. Moorings have occupied this region since 2004 and are typically deployed for 6 to 18 months.

Moored data summary

A description of the data types can be found at the bottom of this document.

Cruise data summary

During the cruises to service the moored array, a variety of data types are collected. The table below is a summary of these data. The number of CTD profiles performed on these cruises within the box region defined above is also included. Trans-Atlantic hydrographic CTD sections have also been performed since 2004 and are included in the table.

Data type ID and description

Related Fixed Station activities are detailed in Appendix 2

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: EB2#2

Related series for this Data Activity 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.

Appendix 2: Eastern Boundary Array

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.