Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 974647

• 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

Teledyne RDI's Workhorse Long Ranger ADCP

The Workhorse Long-Ranger acoustic doppler current profiler (Teledyne RD Instruments) is a long-range and long-term self contained ADCP. It has a patented broadband signal (75 kHz) and a standard depth rating of 1500m. It operates effectively between temperatures of -5°C and 45°C and has a velocity accuracy of ±1% ±5mm/s.

The instrument comprises:

• An aluminium transducer head with four beams at 20^o from the vertical in a convex configuration, temperature sensor, electronic assemblies, fluxgate compass, pitch and roll sensors
• 4 x 28 D-cell alkaline battery packs
• 40 MB PC card internal memory (upgradeable to 440 MB)
• 1500m depth rated 6061 aluminium pressure case. End cap with wet material connector and dummy plug

Instrument Descriptions

75kHz ADCP

Water velocities were measured using a vessel mounted RDI Ocean Surveyor 75 kHz Phased Array VM-ADCP. The transducer unit was installed in the hull, but in a second water chest 4.15 m forward and 2.5 m to starboard of the 150 kHz well. Data were logged using IBM Data Acquisition Software (DAS) version 2.48 with profiler software 17.10. Position and ship velocities were derived from the Bestnav system which is an assembly of multiple GPS signals, including the gyronmea and em-log stream in order to calculate the best possible position, speed, heading, pitch and roll of the ship. Further information on VM-ADCP instrumentation can be found in the cruise report.

BODC Processing

The data arrived at BODC as 18 PSTAR files. They were reformatted to the internal NetCDF format. The following table shows how the variables within the PSTAR files were mapped to the appropriate BODC parameter codes.

The bin depths were found by the originator to be 8 metres too shallow, these were corrected following transfer into NetCDF format.

Following the originator's advice, the reformatted data were subsequently amended by adding 8 metres to the original bin depths. This made the first bin depth centre equal to 21 metres, instead of 13 metres for the first 13 files, and 17 metres, instead of 9 metres for the last 5 files. This was because the originator had identified a mistake in the labelling of bin depths. The adjustment did not effect the velocities measured.

The data were then visualised using the in-house EDSERPLO software. Suspect data were marked by adding an appropriate quality control flag. Missing data were marked by setting the data to an appropriate absent data value and absent data quality control flag.

Originator's Data Processing

Sampling Strategy

The vessel mounted RDI Ocean Surveyor 75 kHz ADCP was configured to sample over 60 bins of 16m depth at 120 second intervals for the majority of the cruise but reconfigured to sample over 100 bins of 8m thickness from the Wyville Thomson Ridge.

Originators Data Processing

The PC was running RDI software VmDAS v1.43.19. Gyro heading and GPS Ashtech, location and time were automatically fed into the software. The software logs the PC clock time, stamps the data (start of each ensemble) with that time, and records the offset of the PC time from GPS time. This offset is automatically applied to the ADCP data in the processing path before merging with the navigation data. Throughout the cruise the instrument was operated in water tracking mode with the calibration of the instrument left as determined during Cruise D321a.

Full processing details can be found in the cruise report.

Field Calibrations

Calibration was obtained in bottom track mode with an offset angle = 0°.

F (misalignment angle) = -59.4636°
A (scaling factor) = 1.0019

Further information on calibration of the VMADCP can be found on page 28 of the cruise report.

Project Information

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/

Oceans 2025 Theme 10, Sustained Observation Activity 4: The Extended Ellett Line

The Ellett Line (begun in 1975 and since 1996 the Extended Ellett Line from Scotland to Iceland) crosses important north Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) components and thus provides an additional contribution to understanding the north Atlantic response to climate change. Sustained Observation Activity (SO) 4 will repeat this section annually collecting a wide variety of physical and biogeochemical measurements, and will, to enhance the time variable component, make use of Argo floats and gliders. SO 4 will be implemented by physical, biological and chemical scientists at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) and the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS).

SO 4 formally contributes to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)-funded Marine Environmental Change Network (MECN). Established in 2002 to coordinate and promote the collection and utilisation of marine time-series and long-term data sets, the goal of the network is to use long-term marine environmental data from around the British Isles and Ireland to separate natural fluctuations from global, regional and local anthropogenic impacts.

The specific deliverables for SO 4 are:

• A time series of the evolution of the hydrography of the northeast Atlantic, together with a more formal understanding of the causes of any changes observed
• An archived data set available to the international community via the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC)
• A platform for further scientific research

More detailed information on this Work Package is available at pages 15 - 16 of the official Oceans 2025 Theme 10 document: Oceans 2025 Theme 10

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

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: