Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 920521

• 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

Simrad EK60 Echosounder

The Simrad EK60 echosounder is a split-beam echosounder primarily designed for fisheries research. One or more acoustic transducers are mounted in the vessel's hull, allowing continuous monitoring of the water column along the ship's track. Seven transducer frequencies are available, ranging from 18kHz to 710 kHz. The EK60 also features a 150 dB instantaneous dynamic range and an adjustable ping rate up to 20 pings per second.

A portable version, known as the EY60, is also available.

Specifications

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

Trimble NT300D Geographical Positioning System (GPS)

The NT300D is a 12-channel GPS receiver with a built in dual-channel radiobeacon receiver. It can transmit positional information with an accuracy of <1 m up to five times per second with a maximum latency of 0.2 seconds. The radiobeacon receiver allows for intelligent and seamless switching between radio beacons, which improves performance and availability. The unit also accepts externally received corrections and allows the user to prioritise between those corrections and the corrections received by the internal beacon receiver. Positioning is based on carrier-phase filtered L1 (carrier frequency) pseudoranges over 183 user-selected datums.

Specifications

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

PD06_07 Navigation instrument details

Prince Madog Cruise PD06_07 Sea Surface Hydrography, Meteorology and Navigation Series

Data acquisition

A sub-section of the cruise was dedicated to the POL Dee Experiment between 16 - 18 April 2007. Sampling for the Coastal Observatory occurred in two separate periods during the cruise; on the morning of 16 April and between 18 - 20 April 2007. The flow through system was switched on at 07:50 on 16 April 2007.

Surface hydrographic (ship's intake 3 m below surface), meteorology measurements and supplementary navigation data, including ship heading and bathymetric depth were time stamped and logged to a central logging system, generating a separate file each day. The data underwent conversion from raw counts into engineering units and were transferred as comma separated variable files to BODC, at 60 second resolution, for further processing.

BODC underway data processing

All underway sea surface hydrography, meteorology and ship's navigation data were merged into a common QXF file using time (GMT) as the primary linking key. Navigation was checked for improbable speeds and gaps, wind speed and direction were corrected for ship's motion and heading and any additional data calibrations were applied as appropriate.

The QXF file then underwent a further step. This involved using Matlab transfer 378 to split the underway QXF file into three separate QXF files. One contained data for sea surface hydrography, one for meteorological data and the final QXF file held the navigation data.

Each data channel was visually inspected on a graphics workstation and any spikes or periods of dubious data were flagged as suspect. The capabilities of the workstation screening software allows all possible comparative screening checks between channels (e.g. to ensure corrected wind data have not been influenced by changes in ship's heading). The system also has the facility of simultaneously displaying the data and the ship's position on a map to enable data screening to take oceanographic climatology into account.

Prince Madog Cruise PD06_07 Underway Navigation Series

Navigation Processing Notes

• Positional data

  GPS positions were recorded on a Trimble NT300D Differential GPS and logged each minute to the central data acquisition system. Positions were checked for gaps and improbable speeds using the in-house program Navcheck. No improbable speeds were found but several gaps were present and these were filled using the in-house program Navint, which uses linear interpolation and flags interpolated values. The data were screened on a graphics workstation and any improbable values flagged suspect. Additional latitude and longitude data were supplied in a separate file. Comparative screening was carried out between the different sources of positional information, before dropping the surplus positional channels.

• Ship's velocity

  The velocity of the RV Prince Madog over ground was calculated by the in-house program Velcal. This works by converting GPS positions recorded every minute by a Trimble NT300D Differential GPS to great circle positions in radians. The arc of these positions is then used to calculate the distance travelled by the ship in kilometres for both north-south and east-west components. Finally, these components are converted to velocities of centimetres per second. The data were screened on a graphics workstation and any improbable values flagged suspect.

• Heading

  The orientation of the ship throughout the cruise was measured by the ship's compass, relative to true north. The data were screened on a graphics workstation and any improbable values flagged suspect.

• Bathymetry

  The echo-sounder was located in the ship's hull, 3 m below the surface. The values recorded by the echo-sounder were not corrected to the surface.

Project Information

Oceans 2025 Theme 3: Shelf and Coastal Processes

Over the next 20 years, UK local marine environments are predicted to experience ever-increasing rates of change - including increased temperature and seawater acidity, changing freshwater run-off, changes in sea level, and a likely increase in flooding events - causing great concern for those charged with their management and protection. The future quality, health and sustainability of UK marine waters require improved appreciation of the complex interactions that occur not only within the coastal and shelf environment, but also between the environment and human actions. This knowledge must primarily be provided by whole-system operational numerical models, able to provide reliable predictions of short and long-term system responses to change.

However, such tools are only viable if scientists understand the underlying processes they are attempting to model and can interpret the resulting data. Many fundamental processes in shelf edge, shelf, coastal and estuarine systems, particularly across key interfaces in the environment, are not fully understood.

Theme 3 addresses the following broad questions:

• How do biological, physical and chemical processes interact within shelf, coastal and estuarine systems, particularly at key environmental interfaces (e.g. coastline, sediment-water interface, thermocline, fronts and the shelf edge)?
• What are the consequences of these interactions on the functioning of the whole coastal system, including its sensitivity and/or resilience to change?
• Ultimately, what changes should be expected to be seen in the UK coastal environment over the next 50 years and beyond and how might these changes be transmitted into the open ocean?

Within Oceans 2025, Theme 3 will develop the necessary understanding of interacting processes to enable the consequences of environmental and anthropogenic change on UK shelf seas, coasts and estuaries to be predicted. Theme 3 will also provide knowledge that can improve the forecasting capability of models being used for the operational management of human activities in the coastal marine environment. Theme 3 is therefore directly relevant to all three of NERC's current strategic priorities; Earth's Life-Support Systems, Climate Change, and Sustainable Economies

The official Oceans 2025 documentation for this Theme is available from the following link: Oceans 2025 Theme 3

Weblink: http://www.oceans2025.org/

Oceans 2025 Theme 3, Work Package 3.3: Bottom Boundary Layer, Optics and Suspended Sediments Processes

This Work Package (WP) is a combination of Work Package 3.3 and 3.4 as proposed in the original Oceans 2025 proposal. It continues and expands the research undertaken in the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory Dee Experiment project.

Sediment transport process models underpin scientific ability to predict the entrainment of sediments into the water column and the transport of sediments for forecasting seabed and coastal morphodynamic evolution. The difficulty in achieving accurate process models lies with the complex inter-dependence of sediment processes in the bottom boundary layer. Near the bed, the fundamentals of sediment transport are governed by interactions between the sediment transport triad; the bed, the hydrodynamics and the mobile sediments. These three components interrelate, being mutually interactive and interdependent.

POL aim to use a combination of high-frequency underwater acoustics and laser optical measurements to make co-located simultaneous measurements of the triad. These measurements provide an observational framework capable of assessing and advancing the latest sediment transport models available. These measurements will be made in a range of environments, with the objective of achieving significant advances in understanding and modelling capability in coastal sediment transport. POL will also address the dynamics of suspended sediment behaviour in the context of sediment supply to the coastal zone from estuaries, and of coastal water column optical properties. Ths will allow improvement of the modelling accuracy of coastal suspended sediment transport and enable development of a new description of sediment suspension and water opacity that will improve simulation of coastal primary productivity.

The specific objectives are:

• Assess process-based models over different sediment types, cohesive to non-cohesive
• Investigate intra-wave and turbulence processes over flat and rippled beds to improve process based sediment transport models; parameterisation of the process modelling output for input into large-scale area models
• Advance the description and parameterisation of the impact benthic biota has on sediment transport processes (jointly with the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML))
• Acquire new knowledge of the dynamics of sediment flocculation and its impact on suspended particulate material (SPM) in shelf seas and estuaries
• Provide preliminary formulations for aggregation-disaggregation and test these formulations using shelf sea models of the Eastern Irish Sea
• Develop understanding of the processes that affect the sediment fluxes between estuaries and the adjacent shelf sea.
• Derive and apply formulations of the effects of SPM on optical attenuation and absorption and assess their potential impact on primary productivity using existing models

Fieldwork

The study site chosen by POL for this research was the Dee Estuary, Liverpool Bay. POL performed fieldwork in the Hilbre Channel on the eastern side of the Estuary and the Welsh Channel on the western exit of the Estuary, with emphasis placed on two repeat stations, HC and WC. The fieldwork under Work Package 3.3 commenced in April 2007 and has been summarised below:

More detailed information on this Work Package is available at pages 8 - 9 and 9-10 of the official Oceans 2025 Theme 3 document: Oceans 2025 Theme 3

Weblink: http://www.oceans2025.org/

Oceans 2025 Theme 10, Sustained Observation Activity 11: Liverpool Bay and Irish Sea Coastal Observatory

Sustained, systematic observations of the ocean and continental shelf seas at appropriate time and space scales allied to numerical models are key to understanding and prediction. In shelf seas these observations address issues as fundamental as 'what is the capacity of shelf seas to absorb change?' encompassing the impacts of climate change, biological productivity and diversity, sustainable management, pollution and public health, safety at sea and extreme events. Advancing understanding of coastal processes to use and manage these resources better is challenging; important controlling processes occur over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales which cannot be simultaneously studied solely with satellite or ship-based platforms.

Considerable effort has been spent by the Proudman Oceangraphic Laboratory (POL) in the years 2001 - 2006 in setting up an integrated observational and now-cast modelling system in Liverpool Bay (see Figure), with the recent POL review stating the observatory was seen as a leader in its field and a unique 'selling' point of the laboratory. Cost benefit analysis (IACMST, 2004) shows that benefits really start to accrue after 10 years. In 2007 - 2012 exploitation of (i) the time series being acquired, (ii) the model-data synthesis and (iii) the increasingly available quantities of real-time data (e.g. river flows) can be carried out through Sustained Observation Activity (SO) 11, to provide an integrated assessment and short term forecasts of the coastal ocean state.

Overall Aims and Purpose of SO 11

• To continue and enlarge the scope of the existing coastal observatory in Liverpool Bay to routinely monitor the northern Irish Sea
• To develop the synthesis of measurements and models in the coastal ocean to optimize measurement arrays and forecast products. Driving forward shelf seas' operational oceanography with the direct objective of improving the national forecasting capability, expressed through links to the National Centre for Ocean Forecasting (NCOF)
• To exploit the long time-series of observations and model outputs to: a) identify the roles of climate and anthropogenic inputs on the coastal ocean's physical and biological functioning (including impacts of nutrient discharges, offshore renewable energy installations and fishing activity) taking into consideration the importance of events versus mean storms / waves, river discharge / variable salinity stratification / horizontal gradients; b) predict the impacts of climate change scenarios; and c) provide new insights to Irish Sea dynamics for variables either with seasonal cycles and interannual variability, or which show weak or no seasonal cycles
• To provide and maintain a 'laboratory' within which a variety of observational and model experiments can be undertaken (Oceans 2025 Themes 3, 6, 8, 9), including capture of extreme events
• Demonstrate the value of an integrated approach in assessment and forecasting
• Demonstrate the coastal observatory as a tool for marine management strategies through collaboration with the Environment Agency (EA), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Joint Nature Conservation Commmittee (JNCC), English Nature (EN), Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD), and Local Authorities, providing management information pertinent to policy (e.g. Water Framework Directive)

Measurement and Modelling Activities

• East Mooring Site: Bottom frame with full suite of physical measurements (high frequency Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP), conductivity, temperature, turbidity and fluorescence), a Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) directional wavebuoy, and a CEFAS Smartbuoy collecting surface properties including salinity, temperature, turbidity, nutrients, irradiance and chlorophyll. All transmit data in real-time via Orbcomm. The Smartbuoy also collects daily water samples.
• West Mooring Site: Bottom frame with full suite of physical measurements (high frequency ADCP, conductivity, temperature, turbidity and fluorescence), CEFAS Smartbuoy.
• Spatial Survey: Four - six week intervals (determined by biofouling of optical sensors). Spatial surveys comprise of vertical profiles of CTD, suspended particulate material (SPM), some bed sediment sampling and surface and bed nutrients, phytoplankton, zooplankton.
• Ferry: The Birkenhead - Belfast ferry samples near surface (5 m depth) temperature, salinity, turbidity, chlorophyll, with data transmitted by Orbcomm. The route is scientifically varied passing through six completely different hydrodynamic regions, which significantly impact on their ecological function.
• Tide gauges: Real-time data are obtained from tide gauges operated by Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC) and the UK tide gauge network.
• Satellite imagery: Weekly composite satellite data, Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sea surface temperature (SST) and ocean colour (chlorophyll and suspended sediment), are provided by the Remote Sensing Data Analysis Service (RSDAS) based at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML).
• HF radar: A phased array HF radar system (a 12-16MHz WERA HF radar) measuring surface currents and waves with maximum range 75km at a resolution of 4km for sea surface currents and for 2-D wave spectra.
• Meteorology station: With web camera, located on Hilbre Island at the mouth of the Dee Estuary
• Operational models: The Coastal Observatory uses Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory Coastal Ocean Modelling System (POLCOMS), which is part of Oceans 2025 Theme 9.

More detailed information on this Work Package is available at pages 32 - 35 of the official Oceans 2025 Theme 10 document: Oceans 2025 Theme 10

Weblink: http://www.oceans2025.org/

References:

IACMST., 2004. The Economics of Sustained Marine Measurements. IACMST Information Document, N0.11, Southampton: IACMST, 96 pp

Oceans 2025 Theme 10

Oceans 2025 is a strategic marine science programme, bringing marine researchers together to increase people's knowledge of the marine environment so that they are better able to protect it for future generations.

Theme 10: Integration of Sustained Observations in the Marine Environment spans all marine domains from the sea-shore to the global ocean, providing data and knowledge on a wide range of ecosystem properties and processes (from ocean circulation to biodiversity) that are critical to understanding Earth system behaviour and identifying change. They have been developed not merely to provide long-term data sets, but to capture extreme or episodic events, and play a key role in the initialisation and validation of models. Many of these SOs will be integrated into the newly developing UK Marine Monitoring Strategy - evolving from the Defra reports Safeguarding our Seas (2002) and Charting Progress (2005), thus contributing to the underpinning knowledge for national marine stewardship. They will also contribute to the UK GOOS Strategic Plan (IACMST, 2006) and the Global Marine Assessment.

Weblink: http://www.oceans2025.org/

Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory Dee Experiment

Introduction

Sediment transport process models are a vital tool in allowing scientists to predict sediment transport and forecast seabed and coastal morphodynamic evolution. It is however, difficult to obtain accurate models due to the complex inter-dependence of sediment processes in the bottom boundary layer. This inter-dependence is governed by interactions between the sediment transport triad; the bed, the hydrodynamics and the mobile sediments.

Scientific Objectives

• To use a varying suite of instruments to make co-located measurements of the sediment triad
• To provide a framework to allow assessment and improvement of the latest sediment transport models
• To address dynamics of suspended sediments in terms of supply of material to the coastal zone from estuaries
• Development of a new description of suspended sediment and water opacity to improve simulation of coastal primary productivity

Fieldwork

The study site chosen by POL for this research was the Dee Estuary, Liverpool Bay. POL performed fieldwork in the Hilbre Channel on the eastern side of the Estuary and the Welsh Channel on the western exit of the Estuary, with emphasis placed on two repeat stations, HC and WC. The fieldwork started in February 2005 and has been summarised below:

Funding

The Dee Experiment project was core funded by POL under Programme 2 (Shallow coastal seas) Theme 5 (Coastal and sediment processes) of POL's Science Programme 2001 - 2006. From March 2007 onwards, this core funding was replaced by funding from NERC's Oceans 2025 programme and the Dee Experiment research continued as part of Oceans 2025 Work Package 3.3.

Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory Coastal Observatory

The Coastal Observatory was established by Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory as a coastal zone real time observing and monitoring system. The main objective is to understand a coastal sea's response both to natural forcing and to the consequences of human activity. Near real-time measurements will be integrated with coupled models into a pre-operational coastal prediction system whose results will be displayed on the World Wide Web.

The Observatory is expected to grow and evolve as resources and technology allow, all the while building up long time series. A site selection pilot study was carried out in September 2001 and the Observatory became operational in August 2002.

The site is located in Liverpool Bay and is subject to typical coastal sea processes, with strong tides, occasional large storm surges and waves, freshwater input, stable and unstable stratification, high suspended sediment concentration and biogeochemical interaction. Measurements and monitoring will focus on the impacts of storms, variations in river discharge (especially the Mersey), seasonality and blooms in Liverpool Bay.

A variety of methods will be used to obtain measurements, including:

1. Moored instruments for in situ time series of currents, temperature and salinity profiles, and surface waves and meteorology. It is hoped that turbidity and chlorophyll measurements will be made at another site as the Observatory progresses;
2. The Cefas Smartbuoy for surface properties such as nutrients and chlorophyll, starting late 2002;
3. R.V. Prince Madog to carry out spatial surveys and service moorings;
4. Instrumented ferries for near surface temperature, salinity, turbidity, chlorophyll and nutrients. The first route will be Liverpool to Douglas, Isle of Man, starting late 2002;
5. Drifters for surface currents and properties such as temperature and salinity, starting in 2004;
6. Tide gauges, with sensors for meteorology, waves, temperature and salinity, where appropriate;
7. Meteorological data from Bidston Observatory and Hilbre Island, HF radar and tide gauge sites;
8. Shore-based HF radar measuring waves and surface currents out to a range of 50 km, starting in 2003;
9. Satellite data, with infrared for sea surface temperature and visible for chlorophyll and suspended sediment.

The partners currently involved with the project are listed below:

• Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory
• British Oceanographic Data Centre
• UK Meteorological Office
• Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science
• Environment Agency
• Liverpool University and Port Erin Marine Laboratory
• Bangor University School of Ocean Sciences
• National Oceanography Centre Southampton
• Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland

A summary of Coastal Observatory cruises to date on R.V. Prince Madog is given in the table below:

Oceans 2025 - The NERC Marine Centres' Strategic Research Programme 2007-2012

Who funds the programme?

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funds the Oceans 2025 programme, which was originally planned in the context of NERC's 2002-2007 strategy and later realigned to NERC's subsequent strategy (Next Generation Science for Planet Earth; NERC 2007).

Who is involved in the programme?

The Oceans 2025 programme was designed by and is to be implemented through seven leading UK marine centres. The marine centres work together in coordination and are also supported by cooperation and input from government bodies, universities and other partners. The seven marine centres are:

• National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS)
• Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML)
• Marine Biological Association (MBA)
• Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Marine Science (SAHFOS)
• Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL)
• Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS)
• Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU)

Oceans2025 provides funding to three national marine facilities, which provide services to the wider UK marine community, in addition to the Oceans 2025 community. These facilities are:

• British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC), hosted at POL
• Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL), hosted at POL
• Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa (CCAP), hosted at SAMS

The NERC-run Strategic Ocean Funding Initiative (SOFI) provides additional support to the programme by funding additional research projects and studentships that closely complement the Oceans 2025 programme, primarily through universities.

What is the programme about?

Oceans 2025 sets out to address some key challenges that face the UK as a result of a changing marine environment. The research funded through the programme sets out to increase understanding of the size, nature and impacts of these changes, with the aim to:

• improve knowledge of how the seas behave, not just now but in the future;
• help assess what that might mean for the Earth system and for society;
• assist in developing sustainable solutions for the management of marine resources for future generations;
• enhance the research capabilities and facilities available for UK marine science.

In order to address these aims there are nine science themes supported by the Oceans 2025 programme:

• Climate, circulation and sea level (Theme 1)
• Marine biogeochemical cycles (Theme 2)
• Shelf and coastal processes (Theme 3)
• Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (Theme 4)
• Continental margins and deep ocean (Theme 5)
• Sustainable marine resources (Theme 6)
• Technology development (Theme 8)
• Next generation ocean prediction (Theme 9)
• Integration of sustained observations in the marine environment (Theme 10)

In the original programme proposal there was a theme on health and human impacts (Theme 7). The elements of this Theme have subsequently been included in Themes 3 and 9.

When is the programme active?

The programme started in April 2007 with funding for 5 years.

Brief summary of the programme fieldwork/data

Programme fieldwork and data collection are to be achieved through:

• physical, biological and chemical parameters sampling throughout the North and South Atlantic during collaborative research cruises aboard NERC's research vessels RRS Discovery, RRS James Cook and RRS James Clark Ross;
• the Continuous Plankton Recorder being deployed by SAHFOS in the North Atlantic and North Pacific on 'ships of opportunity';
• physical parameters measured and relayed in near real-time by fixed moorings and ARGO floats;
• coastal and shelf sea observatory data (Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory (LBCO) and Western Channel Observatory (WCO)) using the RV Prince Madog and RV Quest.

The data is to be fed into models for validation and future projections. Greater detail can be found in the Theme documents.

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: