Quality Control of Marine Current Data:

Standards Recommendation

Dr. Lesley Rickards (UK BODC) introduced the Marine Currents item and moderated discussions. She reviewed the various quality control procedures that exist for verifying current observations. Dr. Rickards noted that her discussion was restricted to data from recording current meters and from moored acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) but not from surface drifters and shipboard ADCPs. The quality control requirements may be different depending on sampling interval, latency and use to which data are put. The scope of quality control includes: (i) information (metadata) to accompany the data; (ii) automatic checks (iii) “scientific” quality control; and (iv) quality flags. She noted that the following documentation is available:

• SIMORC Data Quality Control Procedures
• Manual of Quality Control Procedures for Validations of Oceanographic Data (IOC M&G 26)
• ICES Guidelines for Moored Current Meter Data
• ICES WGMDM Guidelines for Moored ADCP Data
• Quality Assurance of Real-Time Oceanographic Data (QARTOD) I: Standards for Calibration, QA/QC methods and metadata
• Quality Assurance of Real-Time Oceanographic Data (QARTOD) 2: wave and current measurements
• Quality Assurance of Real-Time Oceanographic Data (QARTOD) 3: CTDs, in-situ currents, remote currents and waves
• Quality Assurance of Real-Time Oceanographic Data (QARTOD) 4: QC for CTDs, in-situ currents, remote currents, and waves
• Handbook of Automated Data Quality ControlChecks and Procedures of the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC Tech Doc 03-02)
• TAO Data Quality Control
• Quality Control at the WOCE Current Meter DAC

The meeting was informed that documentation for data management standards for High Frequency radar data is available from the U.S. IOOS programme.