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Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 625442


Metadata Summary

Data Description

Data Category CTD or STD cast
Instrument Type
NameCategories
SeaTech transmissometer  transmissometers
Sea-Bird SBE 911plus CTD  CTD; water temperature sensor; salinity sensor
SeaTech Light Back-Scattering Sensor  optical backscatter sensors
Instrument Mounting research vessel
Originating Country United Kingdom
Originator -
Originating Organization Southampton Oceanography Centre (now National Oceanography Centre, Southampton)
Processing Status banked
Online delivery of data Download available - Ocean Data View (ODV) format
Project(s) -
 

Data Identifiers

Originator's Identifier CD128/019
BODC Series Reference 625442
 

Time Co-ordinates(UT)

Start Time (yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm) 2001-06-15 08:25
End Time (yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm) -
Nominal Cycle Interval -
 

Spatial Co-ordinates

Latitude 25.31220 S ( 25° 18.7' S )
Longitude 70.03320 E ( 70° 2.0' E )
Positional Uncertainty Unspecified
Minimum Sensor or Sampling Depth 101.07 m
Maximum Sensor or Sampling Depth 2415.59 m
Minimum Sensor or Sampling Height -
Maximum Sensor or Sampling Height -
Sea Floor Depth -
Sea Floor Depth Source -
Sensor or Sampling Distribution Variable common depth - All sensors are grouped effectively at the same depth, but this depth varies significantly during the series
Sensor or Sampling Depth Datum Instantaneous - Depth measured below water line or instantaneous water body surface
Sea Floor Depth Datum -
 

Parameters

BODC CODERankUnitsTitle
DOXYPR011Micromoles per litreConcentration of oxygen {O2 CAS 7782-44-7} per unit volume of the water body [dissolved plus reactive particulate phase] by in-situ Beckmann probe
PRESPR011DecibarsPressure (spatial coordinate) exerted by the water body by profiling pressure sensor and correction to read zero at sea level
PSALST011DimensionlessPractical salinity of the water body by CTD and computation using UNESCO 1983 algorithm
SIGTEQ011Kilograms per cubic metreSigma-theta of the water body by computation from salinity and potential temperature using UNESCO algorithm
TEMPST011Degrees CelsiusTemperature of the water body by CTD or STD
TSEDBS011Milligrams per litreConcentration of suspended particulate material {SPM} per unit volume of the water body [particulate >unknown phase] by in-situ optical backscatter measurement
TVLTZR011VoltsRaw signal (voltage) of instrument output by red light transmissometer

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 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

Sea-Bird Electronics SBE 911 and SBE 917 series CTD profilers

The SBE 911 and SBE 917 series of conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) units are used to collect hydrographic profiles, including temperature, conductivity and pressure as standard. Each profiler consists of an underwater unit and deck unit or SEARAM. Auxiliary sensors, such as fluorometers, dissolved oxygen sensors and transmissometers, and carousel water samplers are commonly added to the underwater unit.

Underwater unit

The CTD underwater unit (SBE 9 or SBE 9 plus) comprises a protective cage (usually with a carousel water sampler), including a main pressure housing containing power supplies, acquisition electronics, telemetry circuitry, and a suite of modular sensors. The original SBE 9 incorporated Sea-Bird's standard modular SBE 3 temperature sensor and SBE 4 conductivity sensor, and a Paroscientific Digiquartz pressure sensor. The conductivity cell was connected to a pump-fed plastic tubing circuit that could include auxiliary sensors. Each SBE 9 unit was custom built to individual specification. The SBE 9 was replaced in 1997 by an off-the-shelf version, termed the SBE 9 plus, that incorporated the SBE 3 plus (or SBE 3P) temperature sensor, SBE 4C conductivity sensor and a Paroscientific Digiquartz pressure sensor. Sensors could be connected to a pump-fed plastic tubing circuit or stand-alone.

Temperature, conductivity and pressure sensors

The conductivity, temperature, and pressure sensors supplied with Sea-Bird CTD systems have outputs in the form of variable frequencies, which are measured using high-speed parallel counters. The resulting count totals are converted to numeric representations of the original frequencies, which bear a direct relationship to temperature, conductivity or pressure. Sampling frequencies for these sensors are typically set at 24 Hz.

The temperature sensing element is a glass-coated thermistor bead, pressure-protected inside a stainless steel tube, while the conductivity sensing element is a cylindrical, flow-through, borosilicate glass cell with three internal platinum electrodes. Thermistor resistance or conductivity cell resistance, respectively, is the controlling element in an optimized Wien Bridge oscillator circuit, which produces a frequency output that can be converted to a temperature or conductivity reading. These sensors are available with depth ratings of 6800 m (aluminium housing) or 10500 m (titanium housing). The Paroscientific Digiquartz pressure sensor comprises a quartz crystal resonator that responds to pressure-induced stress, and temperature is measured for thermal compensation of the calculated pressure.

Additional sensors

Optional sensors for dissolved oxygen, pH, light transmission, fluorescence and others do not require the very high levels of resolution needed in the primary CTD channels, nor do these sensors generally offer variable frequency outputs. Accordingly, signals from the auxiliary sensors are acquired using a conventional voltage-input multiplexed A/D converter (optional). Some Sea-Bird CTDs use a strain gauge pressure sensor (Senso-Metrics) in which case their pressure output data is in the same form as that from the auxiliary sensors as described above.

Deck unit or SEARAM

Each underwater unit is connected to a power supply and data logging system: the SBE 11 (or SBE 11 plus) deck unit allows real-time interfacing between the deck and the underwater unit via a conductive wire, while the submersible SBE 17 (or SBE 17 plus) SEARAM plugs directly into the underwater unit and data are downloaded on recovery of the CTD. The combination of SBE 9 and SBE 17 or SBE 11 are termed SBE 917 or SBE 911, respectively, while the combinations of SBE 9 plus and SBE 17 plus or SBE 11 plus are termed SBE 917 plus or SBE 911 plus.

Specifications

Specifications for the SBE 9 plus underwater unit are listed below:

Parameter Range Initial accuracy Resolution at 24 Hz Response time
Temperature -5 to 35°C 0.001°C 0.0002°C 0.065 sec
Conductivity 0 to 7 S m-1 0.0003 S m-1 0.00004 S m-1 0.065 sec (pumped)
Pressure 0 to full scale (1400, 2000, 4200, 6800 or 10500 m) 0.015% of full scale 0.001% of full scale 0.015 sec

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

Sea Tech Light Back-Scatter sensor

The instrument projects light into the sample volume using two modulated 880 nm Light Emitting Diodes. Light back-scattered from the suspended particles inthe water column is measured with a solar-blind silicon detector. A light stop between the light source and the light detector prevents the measurement of direct transmitted light so that only back-scattered light from suspended particles in water are measured.

The sensor has two ranges permitting the user to measure nearly all suspended particle concentrations found in open ocean or coastal waters. Range for the measurement of suspended particle concentration in water will be approximately 10 mg l-1 if High_Gain is selected. If Low-Gain is selected full scale will be a factor of 3.3 higher or approximately 33 mg l-1.

Specifications

Range ~10 mg l-1 on High-Gain, ~33 mg l-1 on Low-Gain
Resolution 0.01% of full scale, ~ 1 µg l-1
Sensor Output 0-5 VDC
Time Constant <0.1 second
Power 9 to 28 VDC @ ~22 ma
Sensor Turn on Time ~1 second
Temperature Stability ~0.5%, 0-50 °C
Depth 6000 m
Size 3.2 cm Diameter, 14 cm length
Weight 0.26 kg in air, 0.13 kg in water
Material ABS Plastic housing filled with epoxy, clear epoxy optical windows

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

SeaTech Transmissometer

Introduction

The transmissometer is designed to accurately measure the the amount of light transmitted by a modulated Light Emitting Diode (LED) through a fixed-length in-situ water column to a synchronous detector.

Specifications

  • Water path length: 5 cm (for use in turbid waters) to 1 m (for use in clear ocean waters).
  • Beam diameter: 15 mm
  • Transmitted beam collimation: <3 milliradians
  • Receiver acceptance angle (in water): <18 milliradians
  • Light source wavelength: usually (but not exclusively) 660 nm (red light)

Notes

The instrument can be interfaced to Aanderaa RCM7 current meters. This is achieved by fitting the transmissometer in a slot cut into a customized RCM4-type vane.

A red LED (660 nm) is used for general applications looking at water column sediment load. However, green or blue LEDs can be fitted for specilised optics applications. The light source used is identified by the BODC parameter code.

Further details can be found in the manufacturer's Manual.

RRS Charles Darwin 128 CTD Data Documentation

Introduction

This document covers the CTD data collected on cruise Charles Darwin 128.

Instrumentation and Protocols

The CTD unit used was a Seabird CTD. There were a total of 24 CTD casts. Three of these used the new titanium rosette-CTD system, and clean trace element sampling bottles. All remaining samples were collected using a stainless steel CTD-rosette system and 10 L externally sprung Niskin bottles. The Seabird CTD produces data frames at 24 Hz, which is generally too detailed, so the data have been averaged down to 1 second frames.

There were samples analysed on board for oxygen and salinity. The CTD data were corrected for these analyses.


Project Information


No Project Information held for the Series

Data Activity or Cruise Information

Cruise

Cruise Name CD128
Departure Date 2001-05-26
Arrival Date 2001-06-26
Principal Scientist(s)Christopher R German (Southampton Oceanography Centre), Paul A Tyler (University of Southampton School of Ocean and Earth Science)
Ship RRS Charles Darwin

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
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