
                    Format of the output data files
			TSDC format


A standard TOGA/WOCE subsurface data file contains two types of records : 

	- a profile header (one per profile)
	- profile data (one or more per profile)

Organisation on tape or diskette :

The record length is 80 characters. A temperature profile is composed of a
heading record followed by a variable number of data records composed of
depth-temperature couples. These records are described hereafter.

Profile heading record :

	from	to	format	field name	field definition

	1	1	A1	record  type	always "P"
	2	8	A7	probe/recorder	probe code(3C), recorder code(2C)
						left justify
	9	11	A3	Institution code data sender's international
						code (NODC tables)
	12	13	A2	country code	international country sender's
						code (IOC tables)
	14	14	A1	Ocean code	A= Atlantic Ocean,
						I=Indian Ocean limited at 120E
						P=Pacific Ocean East of 120E
	15	22	A8	Ship code	international radio call sign
	23	26	A4	Cruise number	originator cruise number,
							0 if not provided
	27	29	A3	Station number	adopted from originators,
							0 if not provided
	30	30	A1	Platform type	A=Vessel,
						B=moored buoy,
						C=drifting buoy
						D=aircraft
						blank=bug or unknown
	31	36	A6	Date		YYMMDD
	37	40	A4	Time		HHMM
	41	41	A1	Latitude sign	negative south
	42	45	A4	Latitude	DDMM (degrees, minutes)
	46	46	A1	Longitude sign	negative west
	47	51	A5	Longitude	DDDMM (degrees, minutes)
	52	52	A1	Profile type	A=XBT,
						B=bathymessage,
						G=TESAC
						S=CTD or STD
						M=MBT
						N=Nansen cast
	53	58	A6	Update		YYMMDD Date of last update
	59	59	A1	valid. level	Internal. 0=unvalidated profile
							  1=checked profile
	60	60	A1	Profile flag	Profile's quality flag 
	61	61	A1	Position flag	Position's quality flag 
	62	62	A1	Date flag	Date's quality flag 
	63	65	A3	Thermocline depth	999 (no more in use)
	66	70	A5	surface salinity	in standard units
	71	71	A1	surf. sal. flag	Surface salinity quality flag
	72	75	A4	maximum depth	deepest profile level
	76	78	A4	number of depth/temperature pairs
	79	80	A1	filler		padded with blanks

Notes : 

1. Call sign : For some data sent by NODC the call sign could not be recovered
   in cross reference tables. In this case we used for the Ship code the 
   concatenation of "NODC" and the NODC 4 characters reference code.

2. BATHY and TESAC are real time data received mainly from METEO FRANCE.
   XBT means delayed-mode temperature profiles as sent by the originator or
   received from data Centres. There should be no duplication between real
   time and delayed mode data. However a small amount of far from exact
   duplicates may still remain in the data base. Sorry for this inconvenience.

   The data may have been reduced at inflexion points or sampled at regular
   depths intervalls (documented in the GTSPP format only).

3. flags use the IGOSS scale :   0 = uncontrolled,
                                 1 = good,
                                 2 = inconsistencies,
                                 3 = doubtful,
                                 4 = wrong,
                                 5 = corrected

All the data were visually checked against the LEVITUS 1*1 monthly climatology
until June 1993 and the LEVITUS 5*5 quarterly climatology from then on. Since
then flag 2 is used to indicate a difference exceeding three standard
deviations between the climatological temperature and the observation at a
given depth.

Profiles flagged 1 should contain only temperatures flagged 1 or 2

Profiles flagged 3 must contain doubtful or erroneous temperatures at one or
several levels, but may be partly usable, depending on the application. 
  
Profiles flagged 4 are considered as completely unusable and are sent only upon
request

In profiles flagged 5 some elements may have been corrected (date, position,
spikes). The previous value is saved in History Tables attached to these
profiles. This information can be recovered using the GTSPP format for data
shipment.

 
data record : 

	From	to	Format	field name	field definition

	1	1	A1	record type	always "N"
	2	78		group repeated seven times : 
			A4	depth		depth in meters
			A5	temperature	temperature in deg C and hundreth
			A1	depth flag	depth quality (id)
			A1	temp. flag	temperature quality (id)
	79	80	A2	filler		padded with blank


Example :
                               
P99999  01206ADBBH    H30N1  A9411180934+5444-05429A970203111199900.000 250 250 
N000100.1601000200.1601000300.1601000400.1601000500.1601000600.1601000700.1801 
N000800.3001000900.6701001001.0301001101.0201001201.0201001301.0201001401.0201 
N001501.0101001600.8001001700.6501001800.5301001900.4601002000.4101002100.3701 
N002200.3601002300.3301002400.3301002500.3101002600.3101002700.3001002800.3001 
N002900.3001003000.3001003100.3001003200.3001003300.3001003400.3001003500.3201 
N003600.3201003700.3201003800.3201003900.3201004000.3201004100.3201004200.3201 
N004300.3201004400.3201004500.3201004600.3201004700.3201004800.3201004900.3201 
N005000.3201005100.3201005200.3201005300.3201005400.3101005500.3101005600.2801 

STORAGE :

	The data can be forwarded to users either on 


	- diskettes (3"1/2   1,44 M) Unix or DOS
	- DAT Digital Audio Tape (Unix tar files)
	- SUN streamer 150 Mb (Unix tar files)
	- Exabyte cartridges  (Unix tar files)
	- ftp on an anonymous account at ftp.ifremer.fr (ip n  134.246.142.1)
	- e-mail for small data sets (Marie.Claire.Fabri@ifremer.fr)


