NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service What is QARTOD? IOOC DMAC Steering Team Second Meeting January 2012 Washington, D.C. Derrick Snowden & Charly Alexander US IOOS Program Office

QARTOD is Not:

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service QARTOD is Not:

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service QARTOD is Not:

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service QARTOD is:

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service QARTOD is: Websters defines QARTOD as a “grassroots” group that derives most of its power and reason for being from a community, and from “common ordinary people.” QARTOD is also independent of any one person: it has leaders, but no one leader is so important that if that person left or died, the organization would not be able to continue. Leadership is shared, skills are taught to all members of the organization so that each person in the organization has her or his job, but also has skills to do other jobs and a goal of the organization is to share information and skills to as many people as possible, as well as to invite as many people as possible to participate.

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service Q1Q2Q3Q4 # Attendees ~ 80 ~70~60 Location Gulf CoastEast CoastWest CoastNortheast Food ?Regional Scripps Aquarium Lobster Funding Agency NOAA Ghosts of QARTOD-Pasts:

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service QARTOD II – Norfolk, VA 28 Feb – 2 March, 2005

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service QARTOD III – Scripps Institution 2 – 5 Nov, 2005

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service QARTOD IV – Woods Hole 21 – 23 June, 2006

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service QARTOD V – Atlanta November, 2009

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service QARTOD I – Stennis Space Center 3 – 5 Dec, 2003

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service QARTOD OUTCOMES QARTOD I - Resulted in monumental decisions for an ocean community struggling to understand the challenges related to data from the IOOS ®.

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service 1.Every real-time observation distributed to the ocean community must be accompanied by a quality descriptor. 2.All observations should be subject to some level of automated real-time quality test. 3.Quality flags and quality test descriptions must be sufficiently described in the accompanying metadata. 4.Observers should independently verify or calibrate a sensor before deployment. 5.Observers should describe their method / calibration in the real-time metadata. 6.Observers should quantify the level of calibration accuracy and the associated expected error bounds. 7.Manual checks on the automated procedures, the real-time data collected and the status of the observing system must be provided by the observer on a time-scale appropriate to ensure the integrity of the observing system. QARTOD I Seven Data Management Laws

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service QARTODS II, III, IV, V QARTOD II Focused on QA/QC issues in High Frequency Radar (HF Radar) measurements, Wave/current measurements and their unique calibration, Metadata requirements Developed quality descriptors for each system and set the level of automated (and manual) QC for each observation

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service QARTODS II, III, IV, V QARTOD III Continued the work on –HF Radar –Waves and Ocean Currents Initiated work on CTD measurements Continued to focus on metadata issues

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service QARTODS II, III, IV, V QARTOD IV Focused on Quality Assurance for: –Waves –In-Situ Ocean Currents –Temperature / Salinity Initiated work on dissolved oxygen Began to engage with the international community

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service QARTODS II, III, IV, V QARTOD V Continued Quality Assurance efforts for –Biogeochemcial measurements (dissolved oxygen, conductivity, temperature, turbidity, oxidation reduction potential and depth) –Wave and in-situ currents

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service OUTCOMES Waves QC Document In-Situ Ocean Currents Document

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service U.S. IOOS QARTOD Project What are we doing? Initiating a sustainable, community-based project to establish authoritative procedures for quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) of measuring ocean conditions for US IOOS This will be based on the QARTOD (Quality Assurance of Real Time Ocean Data), the existing community-based QC development effort and will retain the name of QARTOD The initial focus will be real-time observations from instruments Establish QA/QC procedures for each of the 26 IOOS core variables, when necessary, including detailed information about the sensors and procedures used to measure the variables From the list of individual QA/QC procedures developed, define a minimum set of QA/QC procedures that will be used for certification of RCOOS data providers

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service U.S. IOOS QARTOD Project proposed structure

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service U.S. IOOS QARTOD Project Why is this important? All of the known QA/QC programs in existence today provide parts to the solution, but none accomplishes the task of putting it all together Reliable and practical community-based QA/QC procedures are an essential component of a successful observation program These procedures are also anticipated as components to the data-provider certification process required by the ICOOS Act.

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service U.S. IOOS QARTOD Project How will we execute? 1.Engage the Federal Agencies and IOOS Regions that are part of or contribute to US IOOS who will use the established QA/QC procedures 2.Develop a matrix of the full spectrum of procedures needed (IOOS core variables and sensors) 3.Determine procedures that can be immediately adopted that are already being used by operational entities e.g. CO-OPS, NDBC, USACE (CDIP), EPA 4.Assess previous QARTOD work and move them to completed procedures as appropriate 5.Prioritize new QA/QC procedures needed based on the matrix developed above

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service U.S. IOOS QARTOD Project How will we execute? (continued) Embark on developing new QA/QC procedures: o Review of existing practices across U.S. IOOS community partners and international efforts o Convene a set of subject matter experts to develop the QA/QC procedures o Write the QA/QC procedures manual o Publish the QA/QC procedures, via a technical memorandum signed by the US IOOS Program Director

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service U.S. IOOS QARTOD Project What will be the results in the next 24 months? Initial assessment of existing documentation of QA/QC procedures that are relevant to the IOOS core variables Prioritization of the needs based on the assessment which will result in a work plan for QARTOD into future years Delivery of at least one manual providing explicit instructions for QC tests that are ready to implement by data providers.

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service U.S. IOOS QARTOD Project Authors/contributors to current project draft: -Bill Burnett, Dick Crout – NOAA NDBC -Ray Toll – SAIC (via NDBC) -Julie Bosch – NOAA/NODC-NCDDC -Janet Fredericks – WHOI -Derrick, Zdenka, Charly – US IOOS Program -Rob Bassett – NOAA/CO-OPS -Julie Thomas – Scripps/SCCOOS (IOOS) -Sarah Haines – Oregon State Univ. -Mark Bushnell – formerly CO-OPS -Vembu Subramanian – SECOORA (IOOS)

NOS – National Ocean Service NWS – National Weather Service Charly Alexander – Derrick Snowden U.S. IOOS Program National Ocean Service - NOAA Thank you