Knorr IMET Data Quality Control Report
Cruises: P__06E/00
P__06C/00
P__06W/00
P__14C/00
P__31_/01
P__17A/00
P__16A/00
P__17E/00
P__19S/00
P__19C/00
AR_11_/11
AR_15_/12
A__15_/00

Daniel M. Gilmore and Shawn Smith

World Ocean Circulation Experiment(WOCE)

Surface Meteorological Data Assembly Center

Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies

The Florida State University

December 21, 2000

Report WOCEMET 96-7

Version 3.0


 



 

Addendum:

Member's of the WOCE Hydrograhphic Project Office (WHPO) and WOCEMET met at the 13th Data Products Committee (DPC) meeting in College Station, TX to discuss reconciliation of the WOCE cruise line designators. This was done in anticipation of the future release of version 3 of the WOCE global data set, and resulted in changes to several WOCE cruise line designations.

On December 21, 2000, WOCEMET removed the WOCE designation for the cruise AR_11_/11. The quality control information for this data has been left in this report for the user, but please note that the line previously known as AR_11_/11, is NOT a WOCE cruise line.
 


 



 


Introduction:

The data referenced in this report were collected from the research vessel Knorr (call sign: KCEJ; data provider: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute/B. Walden) IMET automated data collection system from 13 different cruises. All data were recieved in electronic format and converted to the FSU standard format. They were then preprocessed using an automated data checking program. Next a visual inspection was completed by a Data Quality Evaluator who reviewed, modified and added appropriate quality control (QC) flags to the data. Details of the WOCE QC can be found in Smith et al (1996). The data qualtity control report summarizes the flags for the Knorr data, including those added by both the preprocessor and the analyst.


Statistical Information:

The data from the Knorr were expected to include observations every minute from each of 13 cruises. The cruise track code(CTC), the start and end dates, the number of records, number of observations, and the number of flags for each cruise are given in table 1. Time(TIME), latitude(LAT), longitude(LON), atmospheric pressure(P), air temperature(T), humidity temperature(T2), sea temperature(TS), relative humidity(RH), precipitation(PRECIP), and atmospheric radiation(RAD) were quality controlled. A total of 3,621,450 values were checked with 513,824 flags added resulting in 14.19 percent of the data being flagged. The distribution of flags, including the percentages flagged for each variable by type is given in table 2
.

Table 1: Dates and flags added for each cruise
CTC Dates Number of Records Number of Values Number of Flags Percentage Flagged
P__06E/00 05/02/92-05/26/92 33828 541248 244921 45.25
P__06C/00 05/30/92-07/06/92 54720 875520 167354 19.11
P__06W/00 07/13/92-07/30/92 25920 414720 52448 12.65
P__14C/00 09/01/92-09/15/92 21527 344432 51523 14.96
P__31_/01 09/16/92-09/27/92 17153 274448 66801 24.34
P__17A/00 10/06/92-11/02/92 39132 626112 142376 22.74
P__16A/00 11/03/92-11/26/92 33397 534352 67871 12.70
P__17E/00
P__19S/00
12/04/92-01/22/93 62581 1001296 159686 15.95
P__19C/00 02/22/93-03/17/93 33655 538480 155139 28.81
AR_15_/10** 04/02/93-05/03/93 43699 699184 204256 29.21
AR_11_/11 06/13/93-06/30/93 25834 413344 44237 10.70
A__15_/00 04/02/94-04/13/94 15963 255408 105103 41.15

**AR_15_/12 After completing this report the DAC determined that the AR_15_/10 line was never completed.  The data listed from the 4/2/93 to 4/13/93 are the continuation of the P__19C/00 cruise.  The remaining days were a transit cruise to Jacksonville, Florida.


Summary:

As stated in Smith et al (1996), whenever a vessel reports only ship winds to the data assembly center(DAC) as well as the other 3 necessary values--platform heading, platform speed over ground, and platform course over ground, the DAC computes true winds using the method described above and places the true wind values in the WOCE data files.

Table 2: Percentage of Flags Assigned by Flag Type and Variable
Variable B F G I J K L S Total Number of Flags Percentage of data Flagged
TIME                 0 0.00
LAT   2228     54143   55 207 56633 13.80
LON   2209     55202   55 214 57680 14.05
PL_CRS                 0 0.00
PL_SPD2                 0 0.00
DIR                 0 0.00
SPD                 0 0.00
P 1158   17381   15525 5   9 34078 8.30
T     58455 15 2461     29 60960 14.85
T2     59601 3 1514     2 61120 14.89
TS 15102   60920   16004     133 92159 22.45
RH     1277   1528     2 2807 0.68
PRECIP         7936 2221   268 10425 2.54
RAD 125640       5791 6629   2 138062 33.64
Total: 141900 4437 197634 18 160104 8855 110 766 513824  
Percentage of Flags Used 3.92 0.12 5.46 0.00 4.42 0.24 0.00 0.02 14.19  

B: Data point out of bounds
F: Unreal platform movement
G: Data point >4 standard deviations from climatological mean
I: Interesting data point
J: Erroneous data point
K: Caution/Suspect Data
L: Platform position over land
S: Spike in data

The Knorr IMET data contained the needed parameters, but 89% of the wind compass data(a proxy for heading) was 0.0 degrees. This is unrealistic for a ship spending 3 months at sea cruise, so we consider this data to be erroneous. With erroneous data, true wind speed and direction cannot be calculated by the DAC. Thus, the following parameters have been omitted from the version 100 data files and this summary: wind compass, wind vane, platform relative wind direction, platform relative wind speed. True wind direction and true wind speed are in the final version as missing.

Despite the high percentage of flags, these data are in moderately good shape. One major problem with these data is that at random intervals, the values for LAT, LON, PL_CRS, and PL_SPD are 0.0 for extended periods of time. For cruises located in the Pacific Ocean, a 0.0o latitude, 0.0o longitude position is not possible, and holding a course at 0 at a speed of 0 is unlikely, so these data have been flagged as "J", erroneous data.

Other issues include the 197,634 "G" flags the prescreener added to the data. These were applied to P, T, T2, TS, and RH for values that were significantly below or above the climatological mean. These flags were left by the analyst as an indication of statistically extreme values.

In addition, the prescreener added 141,900 "B" flags to the data. RAD was assigned 125,640 "B" flags. Due primarily to a likely calibration problem with the radiation sensor. At night the pyranometer routinely recorded values less than 0.0 W/m2, which is the lower bound for solar radiation data. TS was also flagged with "B" flags 15,102 times due to sea temperature values that were below 0.0oC. These values occur around the coast of Antarctica where, due to salinity features of the ocean, the sea temperature can fall below the freezing point. P was flagged 1,158 times due to very low pressures that occured in this same region. The "B" flag is applied when the atmospheric pressure falls below 950mb. This in not an uncommon occurrence near 60o S. However, all "B" flags were left by the analyst to highlight these low pressure events.

The 6,629 "K" flags were added to RAD in response to a specific pattern in the data. The RAD for one day would show a normal dirunal cycle, with about 14 hours of sunlight. The next day, the cycle would show about 6-7 hours of sunlight, with radiation readings at or within 1 W/m2 of 0.0 W/m2 for the remaining time. The obvious conclusion is that the sensor is malfunctioning. There is no corroborating evidence that this is the case, plus the sensor works well the rest of the time, so this data cannot be marked with "M" or "J" flags.

Of the 2,221 "K" flags added to PRECIP, 1440 are a result of precipitation data on 02/23/93 that shows the syphon emptying at 20mm (normally it empties at 50mm). The emptying is not complete, however, as the level within the syphon does not go to 0. Instead, it goes to about 4mm and then shows a noise range as wide as 8mm. The other flags were added on 04/07/94 where the level of the rain in the syphon is once again questionable.

Spikes were applied most often to PRECIP. These are mostly the result of data readings going to 0 for 1 data point, then returning to the previous pattern, but they can also be caused by noise that ranged too far from the normal noise pattern. Spikes are also prevalent in LAT and LON. These are from ship positions that are reported as 0o lat-0o lon. Only the points that deviate from the pattern are flagged with "S". The rest are left as they were prescreened, with the "F", platform movement unrealistic flag. The spikes in the rest of the variables are not a result of any pattern or problem in the data. Rather they are spikes that are common to any electronically recorded data set. The only significant flags left to discuss are the "I" flags. These were added to T or T2 anytime a drastic temperature change occurred.


Final Note:
These data are in fairly good condition. Providing that the user employs the flag information, he should experience no difficulty in utilizing this data.


References:
Smith, S.R., C. Harvey, and D.M. Legler, 1996: Handbook of Quality Control Procedures and Methods for Surface Meteorology Data. WOCE Report
No. 141/96, Report WOCEMET 96-1, Center for Ocean Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32310.