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NATO TU Black Sea Program

Description of the file formats

(prepared by the Task Team, January 15, 1996)
(version 1.3, revised February 5, 1997)

(Extracted part concerning the Station data file format
used for the marine data at this Internet Node)

Description of the formats for the Data Files

Four types of data files are used:

• Station data files, containing vertical series of measurements. It is recommended to unite parameters from the point of view of sampling equipment (e.g. STD-probe, water bottles, plankton net). For the high resolution CTD data one file contains data of one cast. For chemical and other low resolution data each file contains data for one cruise.
• Header data files, containing observations on sea surface.
• Time series data, containing time series at distinct points.
• Field time series data file containing time series obtained simultaneously on large areas.

The parameters in all files are separated with at least one space. Space characters inside names (units) and data values are not allowed.

Only printable characters (plus "space", "line feed", "carriage return" - ASCII 32, 10 and 13) are used in data files.

Nonexistent values in all data files are replaced by the number (flag) "-88" (minus eighty eight).

Time of the measurements in data files are GMT, other cases have to be described in the corresponding Brief Description File.

File name and extension can include information about ship name, cruise number, type of the data; e.g. AV24CHEM.001, which stands for R/V Akademik Vernadsky, 24-th cruise, chemical parameters, file number 1.

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Station Data File

1st line: Description of the data columns with units.

2nd line: Header information for the station.
This line includes the following parameters:
flag (always 9999), year, month, day, starting time of measurements in hour, minute, latitude in degrees, minutes, longitude in degrees, minutes, total water depth in meters at station, station name, cast number. It can include additional parameters after the cast number, which must be described in Brief Information File.

3d line: 1st line of the data

4th line: 2nd line of the data

...

n-th line: (n-2)th line of the data

<EOF> - end of file

* Remark: For chemical and other low resolution data each file contains data for one cruise i.e. after last line of the data for previous station Header line for the next station follows.

Example of physical data file is given below:

Depth(m) Temperat(degC) Salinity(ppt) Light_Transmis(%)

9999 1991 07 15 23 10 42 30.2 31 45.8 2100 B255 1

0 21.8269 16.8416 51.8269

1 21.8291 16.8442 50.5265

2 21.8299 16.8476 50.5288

3 21.8202 16.8581 50.5392

4 21.7674 16.8935 50.5791

5 21.6227 16.9727 50.6750

6 21.3475 17.1112 50.8481

...

<EOF>

Example of chemical data file is given below:

D(m) T(degC) S(ppt) Sig-T DO(uM) H2S(uM) NOx(uM) NO2(uM)

9999 1989 07 23 01 57 43 30.2 31 45.8 2100 5287 1

05 7.20 17.33 14.11 325.2 -88 0.21 0.10

10...............................................

650...............................................

9999 1989 07 23 12 24 43 10.1 31 12.4 1200 5288 1

..................................................

..................................................

<EOF>

Example of biological data file is given below:

Lower_Depth(m) Upper_Depth(m) Total_Biomass(mg/m3)

9999 1991 01 08 9 30 42 0.0 31 0.0 2100 2310 1

10 0 12.5

25 10 10.0

50 25 41.6

...

150 ...

9999 1991 01 08 11 30 42 30.0 31 0.0 2000 2311 1

15 ...

30 ...

40 ...

...

200...

<EOF>

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