1. QARTOD II Currents and Waves In-Situ Currents: Breakout Group Report Out QARTOD II February 28 – March 2, 2005

2. QARTOD II Currents and Waves Technology Selection 1.25 participants 2.Three technology groups 1.Current meters 2.ADCPs – technology selected by group 3.Drifters 3.In general, did not want to be vendor specific

3. QARTOD II Currents and Waves Recommended Real-Time Quality Control Tests GreenLevel 3No flagPass – data released YellowLevel 2Soft flag Caution – data released RedLevel 1Hard flag Fail – data not released

4. QARTOD II Currents and Waves Real-Time Quality Control Checks for Red – Level 1 * Pitch/Roll UVW – Vertical velocity/horizontal velocity Echo amplitude/intensity Percent solutions Percent good pings (PGP) Error velocity Correlation magnitude Surface (or bottom) reflection/ detection * If information is available with instrument

5. QARTOD II Currents and Waves Real-Time Quality Control Checks for Yellow - Level 2 * Heading Bit status (Built In Test) Battery voltage (V1 & V2) two batteries Water temperature Pressure Timestamp Std deviation of speeds Transmit current Correlation coefficient Speed of sound * If information is available with instrument

6. QARTOD II Currents and Waves PassSoftFlagHard Flag Error Velocity< 15 cm/sec15-30 cm/sec>30 cm/sec Percent Good38: >25% 75: >10% 38: 22-25% 75: 5-10% 38: <22% 75: <5% Correlation Magnitude (counts) 38: 3 beams > 110 75: 3 beams > 64 38: 2 beams > 110 75: 2 beams > 64 38: 1 beam >110 75: 1 beam > 64 Echo Intensity (After 15 th bin) No adjacent bin differences >20 Adjacent bin differences 20-30 Adjacent bin differences >30 Vertical Velocity (each bin) Departure from mean <5 cm/sec Departure from mean 5-10 cm/sec Departure from mean >10 cm/sec Horizontal Velocity <1.25 m/sec1.25-2.5 m/sec>2.5 m/sec

7. QARTOD II Currents and Waves Real-Time Quality Descriptor Flags Each data record goes out with quality descriptor flags Group Discussion Two principle customer groups Customer interested in observation only (e.g., maritime community) Ensemble flag linked to release of data Customer interested in full record (e.g., academia, oil and gas industry) Flags for each hard parameter Ensemble flag linked to release of data Flags for soft flags, if affordable Two data sets Real-time observations (only Level 2 and 3 data) Archived observations (all data)

8. QARTOD II Currents and Waves Real-Time Quality Descriptor Flags Categories … agree with QARTOD I recommendations: -9 = missing value 0 = quality not evaluated 1= bad 2=questionable/suspect 3=good

9. QARTOD II Currents and Waves Real-Time Metadata Descriptors Group Discussion Developed a list of recommended fields to send with the real-time observation Instrument-level description Metadata should be in the header of the record

10. QARTOD II Currents and Waves Metadata to be Delivered in Real-Time Latitude (with a designator: fixed or moving) Longitude (with a designator: fixed or moving) Horizontal datum / reference Depth of water Depth of instrument Vertical datum / reference Time (with a designator for time zone, e.g., UTC) Data collected at beginning, middle, or end of sample Compass reference Serial number Units for data reporting Orientation

11. QARTOD II Currents and Waves Metadata to be Delivered if Affordable Sensor type Deployment date Calibration procedures Date of calibration System frequency Bin size Number of bins Sampling interval Bad beam indicator Average interval Pings per ensemble Compass update rate Quality checks descriptions and thresholds Blanking distance Coordinate system for velocity measurements Joyce parameters Platform description, including fixed or moving

12. QARTOD II Currents and Waves Real-Time Calibration Flags Descriptors Place reference to date of calibration in metadata

13. QARTOD II Currents and Waves Common Data Formats Group Discussion Many data formats represented in group ASCII is universally understood Future holds sensor sending data in XML Moving towards automation and interoperability Recommendations Community should strive to be DMAC compliant Recommended format: NetCDF, along with data dictionary and convention

14. QARTOD II Currents and Waves Next Steps and Roadblocks Key Next Steps Define thresholds for quality control tests Develop open source environment for collaboration (e.g., TWiki) Define specifications for metadata descriptors Roadblocks Disparity in requirements for different user groups – could lead to two or more datasets