
To TAO/TRITON, PIRATA, and RAMA data users:

Please acknowledge the TAO Project Office of NOAA/PMEL if you use 
these data in publications.  Also, we would appreciate receiving 
a preprint and/or reprint of publications utilizing the data for 
inclusion in the TAO Project bibliography.  Relevant publications
should be sent to:

TAO Project Office
NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
7600 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115

Comments and questions should be directed to atlasrt@noaa.gov .

Thank you.

Michael J. McPhaden
TAO Project Director
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The following topics will be covered in this readme file:

  1. Buoy Position
  2. Time Stamp
  3. 5-day, Monthly and Quarterly Averages
  4. Sampling and Sensors
  5. Quality Codes
  6. Source Codes
  7. References

1. Buoy Position:

The daily average latitude and longitude of buoy position 
are transmitted from each buoy via satellite. 

In netCDF files positive latitudes are North of the 
equator and negative latitudes are South of the equator.
Longitudes values are East longitudes, which range from 
0 to 360 with the value 180 at the date line. The longitude 
110W has the east longitude value 250, while 165E is 165.

2. Time Stamp:

Time associated with data represent the sample time for single sample
values or the middle of the averaging interval for average values.  For
example, daily averages are computed starting at 0000 GMT and are
assigned an observation "time stamp" of 1200 GMT.

3. 5-day, Monthly and Quarterly Averages:

If you delivered 5-day, monthly, or quarterly averaged data
these definitions are relevant to your files:

5-Day: Average of data collected during consecutive five day 
intervals. A minimum of 2 daily values are required to compute 
a 5-day average.

Monthly: Average of all the data collected during each month.
A minimum of 15 daily values are required to compute a monthly 
average.

Quarterly: Average of 3 monthly values. A minimum of 2 monthly 
values are required to compute a quarterly average. 12 quarterly 
averages are computed for each year, one for each center month, 
which includes the previous month, the center month, and the 
next month in the average.

4. Sampling and Sensors:

For detailed information about sampling and sensors, 
see these two web pages:

  http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/proj_over/sensors.shtml

  http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/proj_over/sampling.html

5. Quality Codes:

In ascii format files organized by site, you will find data 
quality and source codes to the right of the data. In NetCDF 
format files organized by site, you will find quality and 
source variables with the same shape as the data.
These codes are defined below.

Using the quality codes you can tune your analysis to 
trade-off between quality and temporal/spatial coverage.
Quality code definitions are listed below

  0 = datum missing

  1 = highest quality; Pre/post-deployment calibrations agree to within
  sensor specifications.  In most cases only pre-deployment calibrations 
  have been applied

  2 = default quality; Pre-deployment calibrations applied.  Default
  value for sensors presently deployed and for sensors which were either 
  not recovered or not calibratable when recovered.

  3 = adjusted data; Pre/post calibrations differ, or original data do
  not agree with other data sources (e.g., other in situ data or 
  climatology), or original data are noisy. Data have been adjusted in 
  an attempt to reduce the error.

  4 = lower quality; Pre/post calibrations differ, or data do not agree
  with other data sources (e.g., other in situ data or climatology), or 
  data are noisy.  Data could not be confidently adjusted to correct 
  for error.

  5 = sensor or tube failed

6. Source Codes:

  0 - No Sensor, No Data 
  1 - Real Time (Telemetered Mode)
  2 - Derived from Real Time
  3 - Temporally Interpolated from Real Time
  4 - Source Code Inactive at Present
  5 - Recovered from Instrument RAM (Delayed Mode)
  6 - Derived from RAM
  7 - Temporally Interpolated from RAM

7. References:

For more information about TAO/TRITION, PIRATA, and RAMA, see

McPhaden, M.J., A.J. Busalacchi, R. Cheney, J.R. Donguy,K.S. 
Gage, D. Halpern, M. Ji, P. Julian, G. Meyers, G.T. Mitchum, 
P.P. Niiler, J. Picaut, R.W. Reynolds, N. Smith, K. Takeuchi, 
1998: The Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere (TOGA) observing 
system:  A decade of progress. J. Geophys. Res., 103, 14,
169-14,240.

Bourles, B., R. Lumpkin, M.J. McPhaden, F. Hernandez, P. Nobre, 
E.Campos, L. Yu, S. Planton, A. Busalacchi, A.D. Moura, J. 
Servain, and J. Trotte, 2008: The PIRATA Program: History, 
Accomplishments, and Future Directions. Bull. Amer. Meteor. 
Soc., 89, 1111-1125.

McPhaden, M.J., G. Meyers, K. Ando, Y. Masumoto, V.S.N. Murty, M.
Ravichandran, F. Syamsudin, J. Vialard, L. Yu, and W. Yu, 2009: RAMA: The
Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and
Prediction. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 90, 459-480,
doi:10.1175/2008BAMS2608.1
