Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 1223115


Metadata Summary

Data Description

Data Category Surface temp/sal
Instrument Type
NameCategories
WETLabs WETStar fluorometer  fluorometers
WETLabs C-Star transmissometer  transmissometers
Sea-Bird SBE 45 MicroTSG thermosalinograph  thermosalinographs; water temperature sensor; salinity sensor
Trimble Applanix POSMV global positioning system  Differential Global Positioning System receivers; inertial navigation systems; Kinematic Global Positioning System receivers
Instrument Mounting research vessel
Originating Country United Kingdom
Originator Dr Brian King
Originating Organization National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
Processing Status banked
Project(s) DIMES
 

Data Identifiers

Originator's Identifier JC069_PROD_HRCD
BODC Series Reference 1223115
 

Time Co-ordinates(UT)

Start Time (yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm) 2012-01-31 00:00
End Time (yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm) 2012-03-19 18:00
Nominal Cycle Interval 60.0 seconds
 

Spatial Co-ordinates

Southernmost Latitude 61.84633 S ( 61° 50.8' S )
Northernmost Latitude 34.89883 S ( 34° 53.9' S )
Westernmost Longitude 70.90217 W ( 70° 54.1' W )
Easternmost Longitude 44.23950 W ( 44° 14.4' W )
Positional Uncertainty 0.0 to 0.01 n.miles
Minimum Sensor Depth 5.5 m
Maximum Sensor Depth 5.5 m
Minimum Sensor Height -
Maximum Sensor Height -
Sea Floor Depth -
Sensor Distribution Fixed common depth - All sensors are grouped effectively at the same depth which is effectively fixed for the duration of the series
Sensor Depth Datum Approximate - Depth is only approximate
Sea Floor Depth Datum -
 

Parameters

BODC CODE Rank Units Short Title Title
AADYAA01 1 Days Date(Loch_Day) Date (time from 00:00 01/01/1760 to 00:00 UT on day)
AAFDZZ01 1 Days Time(Day_Fract) Time (time between 00:00 UT and timestamp)
ALATGP01 1 Degrees Lat_GPS Latitude north (WGS84) by unspecified GPS system
ALONGP01 1 Degrees Lon_GPS Longitude east (WGS84) by unspecified GPS system
ATTNDR01 1 per metre Attn_Red_25cm Attenuation (red light wavelength) per unit length of the water body by 25cm path length red light transmissometer
CNDCSG01 1 Siemens per metre TSG_Cond Electrical conductivity of the water body by thermosalinograph
CPHLUMTF 1 Milligrams per cubic metre chl-a_water_NTTFfluor_manufctrcal Concentration of chlorophyll-a {chl-a CAS 479-61-8} per unit volume of the water body [particulate >unknown phase] by through-flow fluorometer plumbed into non-toxic supply and manufacturer's calibration applied
FVLTWS01 1 Volts WsVolt Instrument output (voltage) by linear-response chlorophyll fluorometer
POPTDR01 1 Percent Trans_Red_25cm Transmittance (red light wavelength) per 25cm of the water body by 25cm path length red light transmissometer
PSALSG01 1 Dimensionless P_sal_TSG_calib Practical salinity of the water body by thermosalinograph and computation using UNESCO 1983 algorithm and calibration against independent measurements
TEMPHU01 1 Degrees Celsius UncalTSGHullTmp Temperature of the water body by thermosalinograph hull sensor and NO verification against independent measurements
TMESSG01 1 Degrees Celsius TSG_Meas_Temp Temperature of conductivity measurement by thermosalinograph
 

Definition of Rank

  • Rank 1 is a one-dimensional parameter
  • Rank 2 is a two-dimensional parameter
  • Rank 0 is a one-dimensional parameter describing the second dimension of a two-dimensional parameter (e.g. bin depths for moored ADCP data)

Problem Reports

No Problem Report Found in the Database

Quality Control Report

The originators identified a problem with the slow response of the conductivity sensor which caused salinity spikes in the data. This has been rectified by the originator as described in the originator's data processing section.


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

WET Labs WETStar Fluorometers

WET Labs WETStar fluorometers are miniature flow-through fluorometers, designed to measure relative concentrations of chlorophyll, CDOM, uranine, rhodamineWT dye, or phycoerythrin pigment in a sample of water. The sample is pumped through a quartz tube, and excited by a light source tuned to the fluorescence characteristics of the object substance. A photodiode detector measures the portion of the excitation energy that is emitted as fluorescence.

Specifications

By model:

  Chlorophyll WETStar CDOM WETStar Uranine WETStar Rhodamine WETStar Phycoerythrin WETStar
Excitation wavelength 460 nm 370 nm 485 nm 470 nm 525 nm
Emission wavelength 695 nm 460 nm 530 nm 590 nm 575 nm
Sensitivity 0.03 µg l-1 0.100 ppb QSD 1 µg l-1 - -
Range 0.03-75 µg l-1 0-100 ppb; 0-250 ppb 0-4000 µg l-1 - -

All models:

Temperature range 0-30°C
Depth rating 600 m
Response time 0.17 s analogue; 0.125 s digital
Output 0-5 VDC analogue; 0-4095 counts digital

Further details can be found in the manufacturer's specification sheet, and in the instrument manual.

Trimble Applanix Position and Orientation Systems for Marine Vessels (POSMV)

The Position and Orientation Systems for Marine Vessels (POSMV) is a real time kinematic (RTK) and differential global positioning system (DGPS) receiver for marine navigation. It includes an inertial system that provides platform attitude information. The instrument provides accurate location, heading, velocity, attitude, heave, acceleration and angular rate measurements.

There are three models of Applanix POSMV, the POS MV 320, POS MV Elite and the POS MV WaveMaster. POS MV 320 and POS MV WaveMaster are designed for use with multibeam sonar systems, enabling adherence to IHO (International Hydrographic Survey) standards on sonar swath widths of greater than ± 75 degrees under all dynamic conditions. The POS MV Elite offers true heading accuracy without the need for dual GPS installation and has the highest degree of accuracy in motion measurement for marine applications.

Specifications

POS MV 320
Componenet DGPS RTK GPS Outage
Position 0.5 - 2 m 1 0.02 - 0.10 m 1 <2.5 m for 30 seconds outages, <6 m for 60 seconds outages
Roll and Pitch 0.020° 0.010° 0.020°
True Heading 0.020° with 2 m baseline
0.010° with 4 m baseline
- Drift <1° per hour (negligible for outages <60 seconds)
Heave 5 cm or 5% 2 5 cm or 5% 2 5 cm or 5% 2
POS MV WaveMaster
Accuracy DGPS RTK GPS Outage
Position 0.5 - 2 m 1 0.02 - 0.10 m 1 <3 m for 30 seconds outages, <10 m for 60 seconds outages
Roll and Pitch 0.030° 0.020° 0.040°
True Heading 0.030° with 2 m baseline - Drift <2° per hour
Heave 5 cm or 5% 2 5 cm or 5% 2 5 cm or 5% 2
POS MV Elite
Accuracy DGPS RTK GPS Outage
Position 0.5 - 2 m 1 0.02 - 0.10 m 1 <1.5 m for 60 seconds outages DGPS, <0.5 m for 60 seconds outage RTK
Roll and Pitch 0.005° 0.005° 0.005°
True Heading 0.025° 0.025° Drift <0.1° per hour (negligible for outages <60 seconds)
Heave 3.5 cm or 3.5% 2 3.5 cm or 3.5% 2 3.5 cm or 3.5% 2

1 One Sigma, depending on quality of differential corrections
2 Whichever is greater, for periods of 20 seconds or less

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

WETLabs C-Star transmissometer

This instrument is designed to measure beam transmittance by submersion or with an optional flow tube for pumped applications. It can be used in profiles, moorings or as part of an underway system.

Two models are available, a 25 cm pathlength, which can be built in aluminum or co-polymer, and a 10 cm pathlength with a plastic housing. Both have an analog output, but a digital model is also available.

This instrument has been updated to provide a high resolution RS232 data output, while maintaining the same design and characteristics.

Specifications

Pathlength 10 or 25 cm
Wavelength 370, 470, 530 or 660 nm
Bandwidth

~ 20 nm for wavelengths of 470, 530 and 660 nm

~ 10 to 12 nm for a wavelength of 370 nm

Temperature error 0.02 % full scale °C-1
Temperature range 0 to 30°C
Rated depth

600 m (plastic housing)

6000 m (aluminum housing)

Further details are available in the manufacturer's specification sheet or user guide.

DIMES James Cook Cruise JC069 Surface Hydrographic Instrumentation

The following table shows the surface hydrography sensors used on board the ship, located in the ship's laboratory and non toxic flow, between 5 and 6 m deep.

Sensor Serial number Last calibration date
SBE45 MicroTSG 4548881-0233 19/07/2011
SBE38 Digital Thermometer 3853440-0475 11/04/2011
Wet Labs WS3S fluorometer WS3S-246 09/08/2011
Wet Labs CST transmissometer CST-1132PR 25/07/2011

SeaBird MicroTSG Thermosalinograph SBE 45

The SBE45 MicroTSG is an externally powered instrument designed for shipboard measurement of temperature and conductivity of pumped near-surface water samples. The instrument can also compute salinity and sound velocity internally.

The MicroTSG comprises a platinum-electrode glass conductivity cell and a stable, pressure-protected thermistor temperature sensor. It also contains an RS-232 port for appending the output of a remote temperature sensor, allowing for direct measurement of sea surface temperature.

The instrument can operate in Polled, Autonomous and Serial Line Sync sampling modes:

Specifications

  Conductivity Temperature Salinity
Range 0 to 7 Sm-1 -5 to 35°C  
Initial accuracy 0.0003 Sm-1 0.002°C 0.005 (typical)
Resolution 0.00001 Sm-1 0.0001°C 0.0002 (typical)
Typical stability (per month) 0.0003 Sm-1 0.0002°C 0.003 (typical)

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

Data Processing Procedures

Originator's Data Processing

Data were logged daily by the onboard logging system (TECHSAS). TSG data were transferred from the TECHSAS system and reformatted into Mstar format NetCDF using NOC-generated Mstar processing scripts on a daily basis. TSG data were then cleaned by setting all data values to null when the housing temperature rose while the sea temperature remained steady, attributed to interruptions in the pumping and including periods when the ship was in port.

It was noted part way through the cruise that there were significant salinity spikes each time there was a strong change in temperature. The characteristic was a negative spike in salinity when temperature was warming, which is characteristic of the conductivity responding slowly. When this was noticed, an attempt was made to estimate a time constant to lag the temperature and remove salinity spikes but was unsuccessful, therefore, spikes were removed by hand instead. The problem became worse during the cruise and so a more determined effort was made to estimate a lagged temperature and fix the salinity. It was decided that a systematic search was required to characterise the history of the problem during the cruise. A lagged temperature was constructed using a one-sided filter. A function was created so that for each time step, lagged temperature is the mean of all temperatures within the last tlag seconds. Thus a tlag of 120 corresponds to a lag time of about 60 seconds, the salinity was then calculated from lagged temperature. Further, a smoothed salinity was calculated at each test time as a mean of the salinities within 500 seconds either side of that test time. The residual was the standard deviation of the lagged salinity about the smoothed salinity. Thus, a small residual is presumed to mean success at removing salinity anomalies on a timescale of minutes, as required. A script was used to search each day of data and each possible value of tlag in the range 0:10:150 seconds.

TSG data up to day 13 March 2012 was as follows:
1) Early in the cruise, the optimum residual for this process was small or at zero tlag.
2) Approximately 28 February 2012, the optimum value of tlag was near 60.
3) From day 01 March 2012, the optimum value of tlag was near 120.

Accordingly, it was decided that salinity would be re-calculated from the start of the cruise using tlag = 0 for days up to and including 28 February 2012, and tlag = 120 for days equal to and greater than 01 March 2012. The script created 1-minute median bin averaged data, then removed known bad data including times when the TSG pump was off. The full processing sequence can be found in the cruise report.

All TSG data values were removed at times when the pump was off or the data were considered bad, except for conductivity. Times when the pump was off are as follows:
The start of the pumped data began 02 February 2012 13:00 hours
First Stanley call, the pump was off between 18 February 2012 08:00 and 16:00 hours
Second Stanley call, the pump was off between 21 February 2012 12:00 hours and 24 February 2012 12:00 hours
End of logging from 17 March 2012 18:06 hours to the end of cruise

The following file was submitted to BODC:

Sea surface hydrography data source Format Start of recording End of recording Frequency Content
TSG Mstar NetCDF 29-Jan-2012 17:33:00 17-Mar-2012 18:07:00 60 seconds Processed TSG data

Calibration

Salinity data were calibrated against bottle salinity data. 182 bottle samples were analysed for TSG calibration, collected every four hours excluding time when the ship was on station or due to weather conditions. A script was used to merge the clean 1-minute TSG data onto bottle samples. Individual bottle residuals were plotted, as well as a smoothed (41-point boxcar filter) plot of the residuals, which was then used as a slowly-varying adjustment to the TSG salinity.

BODC Data Processing

The Mstar file was used to provide all of the sea surface hydrography data and were reformatted to the internal QXF format via the nearest neighbour method. All reformatted and calibrated data were visualised using the in-house Edserplo software. Suspect data were marked by adding the appropriate quality control flag. On occasions where all other TSG data had been removed the conductivity data were flagged as improbable. Data were provided when the ship was still in port, therefore, the file was trimmed at the beginning to match the cruise start date.

The following table shows how the variables within the files were mapped to appropriate BODC parameter codes:

TSG Mstar file
Originator's variable Units Description BODC parameter code Units Comments
pad_variable - Pad variable to ensure there is always at least one variable. - - -
time Seconds Time since 00:00:00 on 01-Jan-2012. Median over the 1 minute bin. - - -
time_bin_average Seconds Time since 00:00:00 on 01-Jan-2012. Mean over the 1 minute bin. - - -
temp_h °C TSG housing temperature TMESSG01 °C -
temp_m °C TSG sea-surface temperature (remote) TEMPHU01 °C -
cond S m-1 TSG conductivity CNDCSG01 S m-1 -
fluo Volts Raw fluorometer output FVLTWS01 Volts -
trans Volts Raw transmissometer output - - Superseded by attenuance and transmittance
salin Dimensionless Uncalibrated salinity - - -
salin_cal Dimensionless Calibrated salinity PSALSG01 Dimensionless -

Calibration

The manufacturer's calibration was applied to the raw fluorometer output to calibrate the raw volts to concentration of chlorophyll-a per (milligrams per cubic metre) using the Wetlabs WET-Star fluorometer calibration sheet.

The following equation was used: CPHLUMTF = 13.1 * (output volts - 0.079).

The transmissometer was calibrated using the manufacturer's calibration from volts to light transmission (%) and beam attenuation (per metre). The equation below, taken from the Wet Labs CST calibration sheet was used. No field measurements were available to be used for the calibration.

POPTDR01 = 100 * (Vsig - Vdark) / (Vref - Vdark) where: Vdark= 0.059 and Vref= 4.679.
ATTNDR01 = 1/0.25 * ln(POPTDR01).


Project Information

Diapycnal and Isopycnal Mixing Experiment in the Southern Ocean (DIMES) project document

DIMES is a US/UK field program aimed at measuring diapycnal and isopycnal mixing in the Southern Ocean, along the tilting isopycnals of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

The Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) of the ocean is a critical regulator of the Earth's climate processes. Climate models are highly sensitive to the representation of mixing processes in the southern limb of the MOC, within the Southern Ocean, although the lack of extensive in situ observations of Southern Ocean mixing processes has made evaluation of mixing somewhat difficult. Theories and models of the Southern Ocean circulation have been built on the premise of adiabatic flow in the ocean interior, with diabatic processes confined to the upper-ocean mixed layer. Interior diapycnal mixing has often been assumed to be small, but a few recent studies have suggested that diapycnal mixing might be large in some locations, particularly over rough bathymetry. Depending on its extent, this interior diapycnal mixing could significantly affect the overall energetics and property balances for the Southern Ocean and in turn for the global ocean. The goals of DIMES are to obtain measurements that will help us quantify both along-isopycnal eddy-driven mixing and cross-isopycnal interior mixing.

DIMES includes tracer release, isopycnal following RAFOS floats, microstructure measurements, shearmeter floats, EM-APEX floats, a mooring array in Drake Passage, hydrographic observations, inverse modeling, and analysis of altimetry and numerical model output.

DIMES is sponsored by the National Science Foundation (U.S.), Natural Environment Research Council (U.K) and British Antarctic Survey (U.K.)

For more information please see the official project website at DIMES


Data Activity or Cruise Information

Cruise

Cruise Name JC069 (UKD-3)
Departure Date 2012-01-31
Arrival Date 2012-03-22
Principal Scientist(s)Alberto C Naveira Garabato (University of Southampton School of Ocean and Earth Science), Andrew J Watson (University of East Anglia School of Environmental Sciences)
Ship RRS James Cook

Complete Cruise Metadata Report is available here


Fixed Station Information

Fixed Station Information

Station NameDrake Passage - WOCE SR1
CategoryOffshore route/traverse

World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) Southern Repeat Section 1 - South America to West Antarctic Peninsula

WOCE established a repeat hydrographic section across Drake Passage and designated it SR1 (also known as A21). The section is located between the Southern tip of South America and the West Antarctic Peninsula within a bounding box of 55° 19.40' S, 68° 15.80' W (North-Western corner) and 64° 8.52' S, 63° 4.80' W (South-Eastern corner).

A table of cruises which occupied SR1 is presented below with links to the relevant cruise reports (where available).

Cruise Country Start Date End Date
R/V Meteor 11/5 Germany 23-01-1990 08-03-1990
Polarstern ANT 10-5 Germany 08-08-1992 26-09-1992
R/V Vidal Gormaz 20VDSR0193_1 Chile 02-11-1993 25-12-1993
R/V Vidal Gormaz 20VDSR0194_1 Chile 08-11-1994 08-12-1994
R/V Vidal Gormaz 20VDSR0195_1 Chile 04-12-1995 15-12-1995
R/V Vidal Gormaz 20VDSR0196_1 Chile 28-11-1996 13-12-1996
R/V Vidal Gormaz 20VDSR0198_1 Chile 26-11-1998 15-12-1998
RRS James Clark Ross JR40 United Kingdom 15-03-1999 22-04-1999
RRS James Cook JC031 United Kingdom 03-02-2009 03-03-2009
RRS James Cook JC054 United Kingdom 28-11-2010 08-01-2011
RRS James Cook JC069 United Kingdom 31-01-2012 22-03-2012

Other Series linked to this Fixed Station for this cruise - 1223127 1726524 1726536 1726548 1726561 1726573 1726585

Other Cruises linked to this Fixed Station (with the number of series) - JC031 (142) JC054 (UKD-2) (45) JC069 (UKD-3) (7) JR19950320 (JR10) (128) JR20110409 (JR276, UKD-2.5) (13)


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