1. INTRODUCTION

As part of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue (GODAR) and World Ocean Database (WOD) projects, the Ocean Climate Laboratory (OCL) has developed a procedure to convert data from hardcopy reports into digital form so that these data can be incorporated in the World Ocean Database more rapidly and efficiently. The data are entered into an Excel spreadsheet using a flexible format designed at the OCL. The output is a “comma separated value” (.csv) file. There are two versions of the format: Version 1 was developed in July 1996; version 2 was developed in July 2001.
 

2. FORMAT

Each .csv file contains information for one cruise and consists of four sections:

(1) CRUISEINFO: contains information to identify an individual profile, such as the NODC country code, the project associated with the data, a cruise number, the name of the platform (ship) from which measurements were made, a cruise number, institution, and principal investigator.

(2) STATION: contains information about the station at which measurements were taken such as the latitude (in degrees, minutes, and seconds), latitude hemisphere (north or south), longitude (degrees, minutes, and seconds), longitude hemisphere (east or west), the date (month, day, and year), and originator’s station number.

(3) HEADERS: contains metadata information such as the time, meteorological data, methods description, gear, and bottom depth. If a dataset replaces a previously processed cruise, with the addition of new parameters, then HEADERS section might have NODC accession number, ship, and a unique OCL-assigned station number which identifies each station.

(4) DETAILS: contains information about the variables, the units, and decimal places.
 

3. DETAILS FOR EACH OF THE SECTIONS

(1) CRUISEINFO section:

While the STATION, HEADERS, and DETAILS sections are repeated for every station, the CRUISEINFO section appears only once and is present at the beginning of each data file.

The first row is the label CRUISEINFO. In Version 1, integer codes are entered into column 1 (see below for more information on codes); the labels are in the second column; and text information, if available, would be entered into column 3.

In Version 1, the NUMBER OF PI row identifies the number of principal investigators (PIs) for the cruise. This is then followed by the appropriate number of rows to identify each PI, in this case, two. The columns containing the PI information include a parameter code in column 1 (if there is not a parameter code, this would be blank); the PI code in column 2; and the PI name in column 3. Note: parameter codes are used for OCL internal use. In the example below, parameter code 14 stands for "biochemistry" and code 13 for "primary productivity." If the PI code is not available, column 2 will be blank. There should be as many PI entries as the NUMBER OF PI row indicates.
 

Here is an example of a CRUISEINFO section in the Version 1 format:

CRUISEINFO
49	COUNTRY CODE	Japan
656	INSTITUTE	Tokyo University O.R.I (institute that collected data)
	PLATFORM	Hakuho Maru
	CRUISE	KH-78-3
343	PROJECT	JARE (JAPANESE ANTARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION)
289	COUNTING	SOSC (institution where plankton were counted)
289	VOUCHER	SOSC (institution where plankton samples are located)
2	NUMBER OF PI	number of principal investigators
14	943	DONALD S. DAY
13	303	RODNEY ADAMS

In Version 2, the labels are in the first column, the codes are in column 2, and textual descriptions are in column 3. The label, NUMBER of PI, has been eliminated and only the PI names and codes have been entered. The CRUISEINFO section can also have TS PROBE, GEAR, and METHODS information.
 

Here is an example of a CRUISEINFO section in the Version 1 format:

CRUISEINFO
COUNTRY	49	Japan
PLATFORM	4725	HAKUHO-MARU
INSTITUTE	656	TOKYO UNIVERSITY
CRUISE	KH-78-3
PROJECT	343	JARE (JAPANESE ANTARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION)
PI	943	DONALD S. DAY
PI	303	RODNEY ADAMS

All codes are available at http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/WOD01/code01.html.

COUNTRY CODE can be found in the “country.txt” file. It is the country that collected the data. A PROJECT code, if there is one, can be found in the “projects.txt” file. INSTITUTE, COUNTING, and VOUCHER can be found in the “inst.txt” file. The INSTITUTE refers to the institute that collected the data. The COUNTING code, if there is one (0 or left blank if there is no code), refers to the institution which counted plankton. The VOUCHER code, if there is one (0 or left blank if there is no code), refers to the institution where vouchers (plankton samples) are located. PLATFORM refers to the name of the ship or platform from which observations were made and can be found in the “shipname.txt” file. The CRUISE code is the originator’s cruise number. A REFERENCE code refers to the type of reference instrument that was used and can be found in the “reftype.txt” file. A PI code can be found in “pinames.txt.”
 

(2) STATION section:

The STATION section always consists of three rows and eleven columns. The column order is reserved.
 

Example of a STATION section is as follows:

STATION	431
LAT DEG	LAT MIN	LAT SEC	LAT HEM	LONG DEG	LON MIN	LON SEC	LON HEM	MONTH	DAY	YEAR
23	2		N	60			W	10	25	1964

This example shows the first part of a record for Station 431 (originater’s station number), with a latitude of 23^o 2' N (no seconds), a longitude of 60^o W (no minutes or seconds), and the date of October 25, 1964.

Row 1 holds the STATION label in the first column and the originator’s station number,
Row 2 holds the labels for the location/date information, and
Row 3 holds the data for the labels in row 2.
 

(3) HEADERS section:

The HEADERS section can have a flexible number of rows in it, depending on how much metadata has been provided by the originator. It is five (5) columns wide.

In general:

Column 1 holds the label,
Column 2 holds the value, and
Column 3 holds the units.

The exceptions are ending locations (LAT END, LONG END) and times (TIME), where column 2 is degrees or hours, column 3 is minutes, column 4 is seconds, and column 5 is time zone or hemisphere.
 

An example of the HEADERS section for station data.

HEADERS
TIME	12	14	5	UT
LAT END	23	50		N
LONG END	60	30		W
TS PROBE	CTD
BOTTOM DEPTH	1000	m
OXY METHOD	WINKLER
WINDDIR	100	degrees

The time is 12 hours, 14 minutes, 5 seconds, and the time zone is UT.
 

If the dataset has been obtained from the OCL database and some parameters have been added to an already existing cruise, the HEADERS section might look like this:

HEADERS
TIME	1	42	10	GMT
ORIGINAL NODC ACCESSION#	6500000	OCLcode
PLATFORM	1364	OCLcode
OCL UNIQSTAT	436861	OCLcode
BOTTOM DEPTH	5709	m
WINDFOR	3	OCLcode
WINDDIR	9	OCLcode
WEATHER	-1	OCLcode
LATITUDE SIG	4	OCLcode
LONGITUDE SIG	3	OCLcode
TIME SIG	2	OCLcode

In this example, OCLcode in Column 3 indicates that the codes in Column 2 are OCL codes, which can be found in http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/WOD01/code01.html.

The code for WINDFOR can be found in the windfor.txt file. The WINDDIR code can be found in the winwaved.txt file. The code for WEATHER can be found in one of two files: weather1.txt or weather2.txt.

The LATITUDE SIG, LONGITUDE SIG, and TIME SIG rows all indicate the number of significant figures to the right of the decimal point.
 

Another example of the HEADERS section for data may look like this:

HEADERS
LAT END	45	14.5		N
LONG END	163	45.7		E
TIME	9	55		local
TIME END	10	30		local
BOTTOM DEPTH	6170	m
WEATHER	cloudy
AIRTEMP	9.3	C
WINDDIR	E	compass
WINDSP	8	m/s
BARPRESS	1019.7	mbar
SEA	3	code
SWELL	1	code
VISIBILITY	7	code

The code for SEA is found in seastate.txt. Since OCL does not store SWELL, there is no code table. However, if this variable was provided by the originator, it will be entered. In the example above, code would refer to the originator's code. The code for VISIBILITY is found in visibil.txt.
 

A typical header section for a biological sample might look like this:

BIOTIME is the time at which the biological sampling commenced. BIOTIME END is the time at which the biological sampling ended. TOW TYPE would be V for vertical and H for horizontal.

(4) DETAILS section:

This section can have any number of columns and rows beyond the three mandatory title rows (DETAILS, UNITS, and DECIMAL PLACES). The variable labels appear in the first row (DETAILS). The units that correspond to these labels appear in the second row (UNITS). The number of significant figures to the right of the decimal point appear in the third row (DECIMAL PLACES).

In the Version 1 format, there will not be a UNITS title row and the depth of observation will be found in the first column.
 

An example of DETAILS section for version 1 might look like this:

DETAILS	TEMP	SAL	…(other variables)	variable name
DEPTH
m	C	psu		variable unit
DECIMAL PLACES	2	3		number of figures to the right of the decimal point
0	27.48	36.182
1
10	27.5	36.188
.	.	.
.	.	.
.	.	.

In the Version 2 format, for depth-dependent data (e.g., temperature and salinity) and non-taxonomic data (e.g., production and biogeochemical fluxes), the depth of observation will be in the second column.

A typical DETAILS section for station data in the Version 2 format might look like this:

DETAILS	DEPTH	TEMP	SAL	…(other variables)	variable name
UNITS	m	C	psu		variable unit
DECIMAL PLACES	0	2	3		number of figures to the right of the decimal point
	0	27.48	36.182
	1
	10	27.5	36.188
	.	.	.
	.	.	.
	.	.	.

For taxonomic or integrated-depth observations, UPPER DEPTH and LOWER DEPTH are provided.

A typical DETAILS section for a biological sample might look like this:

DETAILS	UPPER DEPTH	LOWER DEPTH	TAX COUNT	TAX PRESENT	TAX NAME
UNITS	m	m	#/ml	code	name
DECIMAL PLACES	0	0	0
	0	0	10		Achnanthes sp
	0	0	250		Asteromphalus
	0	0		abundant	Chaetoceros
	0	20		rare	Achnanthes sp
	0	20	20		Asteromphalus
	0	20	40		Chaetoceros

Another example of a DETAILS section for a biological sample:

DETAILS	TAX CNT B0	TAX CNT B20	TAX PRS B0	TAX PRS B20	TAX NAME
UNITS	#/ml	#/ml	code	code	Name
DECIMAL PLACES	0	0	0	0
	10			rare	Achnanthes sp.
	250	20			Asteromphalus
		40	abundant		Chaetoceros

Where, TAX CNT B0 and TAX CNT B20 stand for TAX COUNT at depth 0 or depth 20, respectively. TAX PRS B0 and TAX PRS B20 stand for TAX PRESENT at depth 0 or depth 20, respectively. The letter B in the TAX CNT B0, etc., can also be represented by the letter Z, i.e., TAX CNT Z0 etc.

Note: To the best of our ability, taxonomic names have been checked against the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (http://www.itis.usda.gov/itis/)
 

An example of a DETAILS section combining both depth-dependent and integrated-depth observations might look like this.

DETAILS	DEPTH	TEMP	PRIM PROD	UPPER DEPTH	LOWER DEPTH	PRIM PROD_INT
UNITS	m	C	mgC/m3/hr	m	m	mgC/m2/hr
DECIMAL PLACES	0	2	2	0	0	1
	0	22.48	1.57	0	80	23.2
	10	22.01	1.32

 

An example of a DETAILS section with only integrated-depth observations might look like this.

DETAILS	UPPER DEPTH	LOWER DEPTH	TAX COUNT	TAX NAME
UNITS	m	m	#/ml
DECIMAL PLACES	0	0	0
	0	0	608	Particulates 2.0-40.0um
	52	52	504	Particulates 2.0-40.0um
	0	0	83	Suspended solid
	12	12	44	Suspended solid
	33	33	55	Suspended solid

Should you require additional help or to report any problems, please contact OCL.help@noaa.gov.