Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 952977

• 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

Global Positioning Satellite System

A location system of unspecified make or model that determines location on the Earth's surface using the Global Positioning Satellite Network. Angular co-ordinates are given relative to WGS84 CRS. Other parameters such as platform velocity may be derived from this.

CH99 Sea surface navigation instrument details

Navigation was conducted using a Global Positioning System and ship-mounted single-beam echo sounder. Instrument details are given in the table below.

CH99 Sea surface Hydrography, Meteorology and Navigation Series

Instrumentation

Seawater was continuously pumped from the hull of the ship (at a depth of about 4m) through the various underway sensors on-deck and in the lab. This is known as the ship's non-toxic supply. An outlet of this, situated in the ship's wet laboratory, was used to collect the calibration samples for the underway sensors.

Data Acquisition

For most parameters, data logging and initial processing was handled by the RVS ABC system. The Level A sampling microcomputer digitised an input voltage, applied a time stamp and transferred the data via the Level B disk buffer onto the Level C where the data records were assembled into files. Sampling rates varied from 10 seconds to several minutes. The Level C included a suite of calibration software, which was used to apply initial calibrations to convert raw ADC counts into engineering units. At the end of the cruise the Level C disk base was transferred to BODC for further processing.

BODC Data Processing Procedures

Data from the underway files were merged into a common file (the binary merge file) using time as the primary linking key. Data logged as voltages (e.g. PAR, nutrients) were converted to engineering units. Each data channel was inspected on a graphics workstation and any spikes or periods of dubious data were flagged. The power of the workstation software was used to undertake all possible comparative-screening checks between channels.

CH99 Underway Navigation Series

Navigation Processing Notes

Positional Data

GPS was the primary navigation system used on this cruise. At BODC a program was run which located any null values in the latitude and longitude channels and checked to ensure that the ship's speed did not exceed 15 knots. The bridge logs were used to manually enter as many positions as possible during periods when navigation wasn't automatically logged. These cover critical points such as course alterations and arrival/departure at stations. Any remaining null values were filled by linear interpolation. The largest gap interpolated for this cruise was 58 minutes, commencing at 00:10 on 12/12/92.

Bathymetry

Bathymetric depth was logged by the ABC system from an RD200A echo sounder, which recorded the depth of water under the keel (i.e. depth less 4 metres). This was corrected to true water depth at BODC.

Project Information

LOIS River-Atmosphere-Coast Study (LOIS - RACS)

Introduction

The Land-Ocean Interaction Study (LOIS) was a NERC research programme designed to study processes in the coastal zone. The Rivers, Atmosphere and Coasts Study (RACS) was a major component of LOIS that looked at land-sea interactions in the coastal zone and the major exchanges (physical, chemical and biological) between rivers and estuaries and the atmosphere. The study focused on the east coast of the UK from the Wash to the Tweed.

RACS included several sub-components

• BIOTA - A study of salt marshes of the Humber and Wash
• RACS (A) - An atmospheric chemistry study looking at air mass changes from the Wash into East Anglia
• RACS (C) - A study of the estuaries, coasts and coastal waters between Great Yarmouth and Berwick upon Tweed.
  1. The coastal oceangraphic survey
  2. The Humber estuarine study
  3. The Tweed estuarine study
  4. The Holderness experiment
• RACS (R) - A study of rivers that drain into the North Sea

RACS (A) was coordinated by the University of East Anglia and RACS (C) by the Plymouth Marine Laboratory.

RACS (A)

The bulk of the RACS (A) data set was collected during two field campaigns in the winter (October/November) of 1994 and the summer (May/June) of 1995. During these campaigns data were collected continuously from the University of East Anglia Atmospheric Observatory at Weybourne on the north Norfolk coast. An instrumented vessel was stationed offshore to provide a second sampling site to allow changes in a given air mass to be monitored. The Imperial College Jetstream research aircraft made one flight during each campaign to provide a link between the two surface stations. The Jetstream made four additional flights in 1996 and 1997.

RACS (C)

The coastal oceanographic survey

The coastal oceanographic data set was collected during a series of 17 RRS Challenger cruise legs. Most cruises covered two survey grids. One from Great Yarmouth to the Humber designed around the distribution of the sandbanks and a second simple zig-zag grid from the Humber to Berwick on Tweed. A large number of anchor stations, usually over one or two tidal cycles, were worked in the area of the Humber mouth or the Holderness coast.

The Humber estuarine study

The Humber estuarine data set was collected during a series of 33 campaigns on the Environment Agency vessels Sea Vigil and Water Guardian in the Humber, Trent and Ouse river systems at approximately monthly intervals between June 1993 and December 1996. Each campaign consisted of two or three one-day cruises. The tracks covered the estuary from the tidal limits of both Trent and Ouse to Spurn Point. Instrumental and sample data are available from a series of fixed stations that were sampled during every campaign.

The Tweed estuarine study

The Tweed estuarine data set was collected during a series of 13 campaigns using RV Tamaris in association with a rigid inflatable vessel at approximately monthly intervals between July 1996 and July 1997. Each campaign covered the tidal reaches of the River Tweed.

The Holderness experiment

The Holderness Experiment was designed to monitor the process of sediment transport along the Holderness coastline. It consisted of three moored instrument deployments during the winters of 1993-1994, 1994-1995 and 1995-1996. Mooring platforms were deployed at eight stations along two lines off the Holderness coast. A northerly and a southerly line of four stations each were used (N1 - N4 and S1 to S4) with the lowest numbers being inshore. Both lines were approximately perpendicular to the coast, although the S4 station lay to the south of the S line, off Spurn Head.

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: