
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. Salinity
  2. Time Stamp
  3. 5-day, Monthly and Quarterly Averages
  4. Sampling and Sensors
  5. Quality Codes
  6. Source Codes
  7. Instrument Codes
  8. References

1. Salinity:

Salinity data begin in 1987 and continue to the present 
at sites located across the Tropical Pacific, Atlantic,
and Indian oceans. Salinity is in practical salinity 
units (PSU).

If you selected high resolution salinity, you may find
that you have several files, each with a different averaging
interval, for example, hourly, 15 minute, and 10 minute.

In ascii format files organized by site, to the right of 
the data you will find quality codes and sensor codes, 
and in hourly ascii files you will also find instrument 
codes. All of these codes are defined below.

In ascii format files with all sites in one file, you
will find only quality codes along with the salinity
data.

In NetCDF format files organized by site, you will find
quality code, source code, and instrument code variables, 
each with the same shape as the data.

In netcdf files with all sites in one file, you will find 
only quality and source variables accompanying the 
salinity data.

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:

  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

  C (ascii) or -9 (netcdf) = Indicates special adjustments were 
  made to the data. For further information, see the following:

 	Freitag, H.P., M.E. McCarty, C. Nosse, R. Lukas, M.J. McPhaden,
 	and M.F. Cronin, 1999: COARE Seacat data: Calibrations and
 	quality control procedures. NOAA Tech. Memo. ERL PMEL-115,
 	89 pp.

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. Instrument Codes:

   0 - No Sensor
   4 - Conductivity (FSI)
  14 - NextGen Conductivity
  24 - NextGen Conductivity (Firmware version 5.03+)
  70 - Seacat Conductivity
  71 - Microcat Conductivity   
  99 - Unknown

8. 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
