Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 878137
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
Data Description |
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Time Co-ordinates(UT) |
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Parameters |
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Problem Reports
No Problem Report Found in the Database
Data Access Policy
Public domain 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.
The recommended acknowledgment is
"This study uses data from the data source/organisation/programme, provided by the British Oceanographic Data Centre and funded by the funding body."
Narrative Documents
Neil Brown MK3 CTD
The Neil Brown MK3 conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) profiler consists of an integral unit containing pressure, temperature and conductivity sensors with an optional dissolved oxygen sensor in a pressure-hardened casing. The most widely used variant in the 1980s and 1990s was the MK3B. An upgrade to this, the MK3C, was developed to meet the requirements of the WOCE project.
The MK3C includes a low hysteresis, titanium strain gauge pressure transducer. The transducer temperature is measured separately, allowing correction for the effects of temperature on pressure measurements. The MK3C conductivity cell features a free flow, internal field design that eliminates ducted pumping and is not affected by external metallic objects such as guard cages and external sensors.
Additional optional sensors include pH and a pressure-temperature fluorometer. The instrument is no longer in production, but is supported (repair and calibration) by General Oceanics.
Specifications
These specification apply to the MK3C version.
| Pressure | Temperature | Conductivity | |
| Range | 6500 m 3200 m (optional) | -3 to 32°C | 1 to 6.5 S cm-1 |
| Accuracy | 0.0015% FS 0.03% FS < 1 msec | 0.0005°C 0.003°C < 30 msec | 0.0001 S cm-1 0.0003 S cm-1 < 30 msec |
Further details can be found in the specification sheet.
Aquatracka fluorometer
The Chelsea Instruments Aquatracka is a logarithmic response fluorometer. It uses a pulsed (5.5 Hz) xenon light source discharging between 320 and 800 nm through a blue filter with a peak transmission of 420 nm and a bandwidth at half maximum of 100 nm. A red filter with sharp cut off, 10% transmission at 664 nm and 678 nm, is used to pass chlorophyll-a fluorescence to the sample photodiode.
The instrument may be deployed either in a through-flow tank, on a CTD frame or moored with a data logging package.
Further details can be found in the manufacturer's specification sheet.
RV Almeida Carvalho 97 and 99 CTD Data Documentation
Instrumentation
The instrumentation used was a Neil Brown Mk IIIC CTD equipped with an Aquatracka Mk III turbidity sensor and a 12 bottle rosette sampler.
Data Acquisition
The raw data were logged on a PC using the standard Neil Brown EG&G software.
Post Cruise Processing
The raw data were extensively processed at Instituto Hidrografico, including calibration of conductivity (and hence salinity) against water bottle sample data and laboratory calibration of temperature and turbidity. The worked up data were transferred to BODC as ASCII files as profiles binned at 1 decibar.
At BODC, the data were converted into the BODC internal format (PXF) and inspected using an interactive graphical editor. A small number of spikes were identified and flagged as suspect.
The data were fully calibrated prior to submission to BODC and are believed to be good quality data. This was confirmed by checking the theta-salinity curves from the deep profiles against the nearest known good quality profiles (taken from the OMEX II Pelagia PLG138 and OMEX I Charles Darwin CD83 cruises). The observed agreement for a given value of theta was 0.005 PSU or better in stable water.
BODC has a standard storage convention for storing CTD data. Shallow (<100 db) casts are held at 1 decibar, but deeper casts are stored at the 2 decibar resolution recommended by SCOR. These data have already been binned, which can cause confusion about what happens when the data are passed through a second binning procedure. Users should therefore be aware how the BODC processing has modified the data.
The BODC binning algorithm defines the top bin as the average of all data with a pressure from zero to 0.9999 (1 db binning) or 1.9999 (2 db binning) and labels these bins as 0.5 or 1.0 respectively. The original data were supplied with the top bin labelled as zero. The following show how the original pressure channel maps to the BODC pressure channel for each of the binning intervals used.
| 1db binning: | BODC pressure = input pressure + 0.5 (effectively a change in labelling convention from the top to the mid-point of the bin) |
| 2 db binning: | Input pressures 0.0 and 1.0 averaged to give BODC pressure 1.0 Input pressures 2.0 and 3.0 averaged to give BODC pressure 3.0. |
Project Information
Ocean Margin EXchange (OMEX) II - II
Introduction
OMEX was a European multidisciplinary oceanographic research project that studied and quantified the exchange processes of carbon and associated elements between the continental shelf of western Europe and the open Atlantic Ocean. The project ran in two phases known as OMEX I (1993-1996) and OMEX II - II (1997-2000), with a bridging phase OMEX II - I (1996-1997). The project was supported by the European Union under the second and third phases of its MArine Science and Technology Programme (MAST) through contracts MAS2-CT93-0069 and MAS3-CT97-0076. It was led by Professor Roland Wollast from Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium and involved more than 100 scientists from 10 European countries.
Scientific Objectives
The aim of the Ocean Margin EXchange (OMEX) project was to gain a better understanding of the physical, chemical and biological processes occurring at the ocean margins in order to quantify fluxes of energy and matter (carbon, nutrients and other trace elements) across this boundary. The research culminated in the development of quantitative budgets for the areas studied using an approach based on both field measurements and modeling.
OMEX II - II (1997-2000)
The second phase of OMEX concentrated exclusively on the Iberian Margin, although RV Belgica did make some measurements on La Chapelle Bank whilst on passage to Zeebrugge. This is a narrow-shelf environment, which contrasts sharply with the broad shelf adjacent to the Goban Spur. This phase of the project was also strongly multidisciplinary in approach, covering physics, chemistry, biology and geology.
There were a total of 33 OMEX II - II research cruises, plus 23 CPR tows, most of which were instrumented. Some of these cruises took place before the official project start date of June 1997.
Data Availability
Field data collected during OMEX II - II have been published by BODC as a CD-ROM product, entitled:
- OMEX II Project Data Set (three discs)
Further descriptions of this product and order forms may be found on the BODC web site.
The data are also held in BODC's databases and subsets may be obtained by request from BODC.
Data Activity or Cruise Information
Cruise
| Cruise Name | AC99 |
| Departure Date | 1999-05-03 |
| Arrival Date | 1999-05-30 |
| Principal Scientist(s) | Joao Vitorino (Portuguese Hydrographic Institute) |
| Ship | Almeida Carvalho |
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 |
