Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 679544

• 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 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

Kipp and Zonen Pyranometer Model CM6B

The CM6B pyranometer is intended for routine global solar radiation measurement research on a level surface. The CM6B features a sixty-four thermocouple junction (series connected) sensing element. The sensing element is coated with a highly stable carbon based non-organic coating, which delivers excellent spectral absorption and long term stability characteristics. The sensing element is housed under two concentric fitting Schott K5 glass domes.

Specifications

CD159 Underway Instrumentation

Navigation

• Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
• Gyrocompass
• Chernikeeff Electro-Magnetic speed log
• Simrad EA-500 10 kHz echo sounder

Meteorology

All meteorological and light sensors were mounted on the ship's foremast.

Hydrography

Ship's intake was at approximately 2.5 m.

CD159 Meteorology Processing

• Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR)

  Manufacturer's calibration equations were rearranged and used to convert the PAR sensor data (port and starboard) from volts to watts per squared metre. The equations, taken from the UKORS-supplied sensor calibration sheets, were as follows:

  1) PAR (port): 14.81 mV = 1 kWm-2

  2) PAR (starboard): 13.74 mV = 1 kWm-2

  Port and starboard data were subsequently merged into one channel. This process selects the highest value from each sensor, for each timestamp, and discards the lower value, where sensor shading may have occurred. The merged PAR data were screened alongside merged solar radiation channels for comparison.

  Quality control report

  The merged data from this channel are of very good quality, with only minor flagging required.

• Solar Radiation

  Manufacturer's calibration equations were rearranged and used to convert the sensor data (port and starboard) from volts to watts per squared metre. The equations, taken from the sensor calibration sheets, were as follows:

  3) Solar radiation (port): 10.26 µV = 1 Wm-2

  4) Solar radiation (starboard): 9.78 µV = 1 Wm-2

  Port and starboard data were subsequently merged into one channel. This process selects the highest value from each sensor, for each time stamp, and discards the lower value, where sensor shading may have occurred. The merged solar radiation data were screened alongside merged PAR for comparison.

  Quality control report

  Good quality data with only minor flagging required.

• Atmospheric pressure

  No additional processing was done by BODC and the data have not been corrected to sea level.

  Quality control report

  The data in this channel are of good quality.

• Air temperature and relative humidity

  Air temperature and relative humidity were measured by the same sensor. No additional processing was carried out by BODC.

  Quality control report

  The data in these channels are of good quality.

• Wind speed and direction

  BODC received logged values of relative wind speed and direction. The relative data were corrected to absolute values using ship's heading and velocity and a vane orientation of 180 degrees relative to the bow of the ship.

  Quality control report

  Overall, the data are of good quality. Minor flagging was required where residual effects of the ship's heading on wind data was detected.

CD159 Underway General Processing

UKORS data processing

Data logging and initial data processing were handled by the RVS ABC logging system.

Standard navigation processing was carried out using the relmov and bestnav programs. relmov takes in data from the electro-magnetic (EM) speed log and gyro compass in order to generate a relative motion file. This relative motion file was then combined with one or more fix files by the bestnav program in order to generate a 10 second interval best navigation file, bestnav. The original idea behind bestnav was that it would take infrequent fixes, such as those from older transit satellite systems (typically several hours between fixes), or even fixes manually input from sextant sightings, and then dead-reckon between those fixes. Today, with GPS fixes coming in every second, its dead-reckoning facility is only used for periods when GPS drops out, for instance due to an aurora.

The program prodep was used to correct depth data from the Simrad EA-500 echo sounder for variation of sound velocity in sea water (Carter's tables corrections) and written at 10 second intervals to a file called prodep. Meteorological data were collected through a Vaisala QL150 sensor collector at 1 second intervals, which is then averaged to 30 seconds. Salinity data were derived from temperature and conductivity data logged via the Surfmet system using the protsg program.

The bestnav, prodep, rawsurfmet and protsg ASCII files were submitted to BODC for banking.

BODC processing

Problems with the logging of the data channels in the protsg file meant rawsurfmet was used as the source of all hydrographic data, as well as meteorological variables. The bestnav, prodep and rawsurfmet data files were merged at 30 second intervals using an in-house script (BUDS loadrvs) and transformed into QXF format, a subset of netCDF. Following transfer to QXF, the data were visually screened using the in-house EDSERPLO package.

Navigation

Navigation channels were checked for gaps and improbable speeds. 11 gaps were found, all less than 1 minute duration, which were filled using linear interpolation. No speed check errors were found.

The following unit conversions were made:

• Ship's velocity was converted from knots to cm s^-1 by multiplying by 51.444.
• Ship's speed was converted from knots to m s^-1 by multiplying by 0.5144.

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.

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: