UniversalFormat

 

 

 

 

 

 

The universal format is a comma separated, plain text format used by the SCIMS processing system for both NOAA and SIO underway data. For each cruise, there are two files per day: a data file and a quality flags file.  Each row in the files corresponds to a sampling point in time, and each column contains one data type.  There are 52 total data types and they are as follows, with a brief description:

  1. Date: Date of sample: YYYYMMDD format
  2. Time: Time of sample: HHMMSS format
  3. Elapsed_Time: Time of sample: seconds since cruise start
  4. Latitude: Latitude of ship location: decimal degrees
  5. Longitude: Longitude of ship location: decimal degrees
  6. Flow_Meter: Flow rate into the TSG: liters per minute
  7. TSG_Temp90: ITS-90 thermosalinograph water temperature: deg C
  8. Salinity: Thermosalinograph water salinity: PSU
  9. Conductivity: Thermosalinograph water conductivity: cS/m
  10. Surf_Par: Photosynthetically Active Radiation at the surface: uE/s/m^2
  11. Pressure: Surface Pressure.  This is permanently set to 0 due to lack of data
  12. Raw_Fluor: Raw voltage from the fluorometer: volts
  13. Sea_Surf_Temp: Sea surface temperature from thermistor: deg C
  14. Sea_Surf_Temp_Sec: Secondary sea surface temperature from thermistor: deg C
  15. Sea_Temp_Fluor_Uncalibrated: Sea surface temperature from fluorometer:deg C
  16. Sigma_Theta: Sigma theta of seawater, from TSG: kg/m^3
  17. Spec_Vol_Anom: This is included but will always be 0 since it is surface water: m^3/kg
  18. Air_Temp: Temperature of the air: deg C
  19. Baro_Press: Barometric pressure of the air at the surface: mBar
  20. Rel_Humidity: Relative Humidity: percent
  21. Rel_Hum_Air_Temp: Air temperature as reported by the relative humidity sensor: deg C
  22. Rel_Wind_Dir: Wind direction relative to ship heading: degrees
  23. Rel_Wind_Dir_Sec: Secondary wind direction relative to ship heading: degrees
  24. Rel_Wind_Speed: Wind speed relative to ship speed: m/s
  25. Rel_Wind_Speed_Sec: Secondary wind speed relative to ship speed: m/s
  26. True_Wind_Dir: True wind direction, corrected for ship heading: degrees
  27. True_Wind_Dir_Sec: Secondary true wind direction, corrected for ship heading: degrees
  28. True_Wind_Speed: True wind speed, corrected for ship speed: m/s
  29. True_Wind_Speed_Sec: Secondary true wind speed, corrected for ship speed: m/s
  30. Depth: Bottom Depth: meters below surface
  31. Fluor_Temp_Corr: Temperature corrected fluorometer voltage: volts
  32. GPS_Alt: Height above reference geoid (GPS Altimeter): meters
  33. GPS_COG: Course over ground from GPS: degrees
  34. GPS_COG_Sec: Course over ground from secondary GPS unit: degrees
  35. GPS_Date: Date as given by the GPS unit: seconds since epoch
  36. GPS_Date_Sec: Date as given by the secondary GPS unit: seconds since epoch
  37. GPS_Quality: Quality assurance flag from GPS unit: number
  38. GPS_SOG: Speed over ground from GPS unit: m/s
  39. GPS_Time: GPS time of Day: seconds since midnight
  40. GPS_Time_Sec: Secondary GPS unit's time of day: seconds since midnight
  41. Gyro: Gyroscope value: degrees
  42. Lat_Sec: Latitude from secondary GPS unit: decimal degrees
  43. Long_Sec: Longitude from secondary GPS unit: decimal degrees
  44. Long_Speed: Speed calculated from longitude value: m/s
  45. Speed_Over_Water: Speed over water: m/s
  46. System_Date: MET computer's date: seconds since midnight
  47. TSG_Temp68: ITS-68 thermosalinograph water temperature: deg C
  48. Turbidity: Turbidity (almost never reported): NTU
  49. CTD_Alt: Altitude of the CTD: meters
  50. CTD_Depth: Depth of the CTD below the surface: meters
  51. CTD_Sal: Salinity reported by the CTD, when it is in the water: PSU
  52. CTD_Temp: Temperature reported by the CTD, when it is in the water: deg

The columns in the flag file are identical except for an additional row flag column that identifies the validity of the entire row.  An entire row could be bad if, say, a time was misrepresented or a position was over land. The possible flags are 1, 3 or 9.  1 means the data is valid and usable, 3 means that the data is questionable and shouldn't be used without further scrutiny, and 9 means that the data is unusable.