Quality Control of Surface Wave Data:

Standards Recommendation

Ms. Julie Bosch (USA NOAA) introduced this item and moderated discussions. She reviewed the various quality control procedures that exist for verifying surface wave observations.

She noted that the following in-situ wave measurement systems are in use today:

• Directional Buoy
• Non-directional Buoy
• Directional Array of Pressure Sensors
• Single Point Pressure Sensor
• Wave Staff
• Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler
• Pressure Orbital Velocity Sensors

She stated that real-time QC is a subset of overall QC. Inspection of the data (automated or manual) must be made in light of where it is collected (e.g. range checks/thresholds must be adjusted to local environments) and visual inspections are still part of these processes. She mentioned the following candidate standards:

• Quality Control and Management of Oceanographic Wave-Gage Data CERC-IR-90-1 - US Army Engineer Corps manual
  • Actively used
  • Sound methodologies / outdated technologies
  • Geared more toward instrument checks and calibrations
  • More QA than QC
• Manual of Quality Control Procedures for Validations of Oceanographic Data (IOC M&G 26)
  • Actively used
  • Widely used
  • Most comprehensive list of tests
  • Sound methodologies / outdated technologies
  • Includes QA and QC
  • Includes requirement for documentation/tracking (metadata)
• Handbook of Automated Data Quality ControlChecks and Procedures of the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC Tech Doc 03-02)
  • Actively used (NDBC)
  • Sound methodologies
  • Provides descriptive guidance and QC algorithms
  • Provides hard/soft flag guidance
  • Based on methods in IODE, Manual and Guide 26, 1993
  • (Terminology (vocabulary) used in test descriptions = difficulty in directly or quickly relating between standards for this comparison)
  • Geared toward specific user (data management, database, …)
• SIMORC Data Quality Control Procedures
  • Active/Wide use
  • Sound methodologies
  • Based on methods in IODE, Manual and Guide 26, 1993
  • Lists tests / some descriptive guidance
  • Geared toward specific user (data management, tools, codes, file formats…)