Glider Optical Measurements and BUFR Format for Data QC and Storage
Abstract
Unmanned underwater vehicles are becoming an increasingly important platform in oceanographic research and operational oceanography, where continuous in situ sampling throughout the water column is essential to understanding the ocean circulation and related biological, chemical, and optical activity. The latter directly affects field operations and remote sensing capabilities from space. A unified approach is necessary for data quality control (QC), access, and storage, considering the vast amount of data collected from gliders continuously deployed across large areas and over long durations. The Binary Universal Form for the Representation of meteorological data (BUFR) maintained by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is adapted to include physical and optical parameters from a variety of sensor suites onboard underwater vehicles. The provisional BUFR template and related BUFR descriptors and table entries have been developed by the U.S. Navy for ocean glider profile data and QC results. Software written in FORTRAN using the ECMWF BUFRDC library has been implemented to perform both the encoding and decoding of BUFR files from and to Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) files. This presentation also discusses data collected from sensors on gliders deployed in both deep water and shallow water environments, including issues specific to optical sensors at various depths.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA557662
Entities
People
- Alan Dean Weidemann
- Bob Arnone
- Danielle Bryant
- Derek Burrage
- Ken Grembowicz
- Kevin Mahoney
- Marc Torres
- Michael Carnes
- Samuel R. Mangin
- Weilin W. Hou
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory