Cruise Descriptions and Data Results

All dates and times given in the text and the data files are Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). North latitudes and east longitudes are listed as positive values. South latitudes and west longitudes are given as negative values. The data flags used in the files follow the WOCE water sample quality flag definitions. The value 2 in the flag column indicates acceptable f(CO₂)_sw data; the value 3 indicates questionable f(CO₂)_sw data; the value 5 indicates not reported data; and letter P in the flag column indicates questionable latitude and/or longitude.

Positional data were checked against the available ship log records using two methods. First, plots of time vs. latitude and of time vs. longitude were made for each cruise. A given point was checked against the marine operations abstracts (moas) if it was judged to be sufficiently far from the trend. A second check was made by plotting time vs. the distance travelled in an hour. Most of the data show the ship speeds between 0 and 20 knots, but a few points suggested much higher speeds. The positions were checked against the moas if the speeds exceeded 25 knots. Since the original ship log records for the 1987 SAGA II expedition were not available for this comparison, the data were compared against the 3-hour positional data provided. No obvious problems were found with this record, and so the hourly positions, interpolated from the 3-hour record were used without corrections. These errors could decrease the cumulative distance totals for the SAGA II expeditions by several hundred kilometers.