MEDAR 2002 Database and Network

The MEDAR Group

MEDAR/MEDATLAS II Mediterranean Data Archaeology and Rescue

of Temperature, Salinity and Bio-chemical Parameters

EC-Marine Science & Technology Programme

Concerted Action (MAS3-CT98-0174/ERBIC20-CT98-0103)

206/11/2002

Rationale Long time series of basic oceanographic

parameters are necessary for various scientific and technical studies Temperature and salinity

Previous projects : MODB, MEDATLAS 1997 Dissolved oxygen Nutrients

Data still dispersed among the organizations which carry oceanographic cruises with the risk of being lost for the community

International program GODAR is preapring

306/11/2002

OBJECTIVES OF MEDAR/MEDATLAS

To compile and safeguard historical dataTo make available comparable datasets

Common format Common protocol for quality checks

To compute climatology for all the parameters

To publish and disseminate observed data and climatology

To enhance communication between scientists and data managers

406/11/2002

MEDAR GROUP

506/11/2002

PROJECT STRUCTURE

606/11/2002

Loading in the data base

Error list

Benchmark 3 : OCT 2000Benchmark 4 : JULY 2001

Final corrected data set : JUNE 2002

GACIFREMER/France4 RDC

NODC/DNA DATA CIRCULATION

ACGHER/Belgium

Benchmark 3 : NOVEMBER 2000Benchmark 4 : SEPTEMBER 2001

Final data set : JULY 2002

Pre-processing

1st Climatology

November 2001

Errors

Final Climatology October 2002

706/11/2002

MEDAR 2002 DATABASE Content by data type

Data type Nb of Profiles in MEDATLAS 2002

(MEDATLAS 1997)

CTD 35 679(15 778)

Bottle 88 323(33 977)

MBT and XBT 161 848(156 474)

Thermistors 29(29)

806/11/2002

MEDAR 2002 DATABASE Content by Parameters

Parameter Nb of Profiles Parameter Nb of Profiles

Temperature 284 371 Nitrite 10 508

Salinity 118 009 Ammonium 5 239

Oxygen 44 928 Chlorophyll 4 672

Phosphate 20 761 Alkalinity 2 548

Silicate 15 920 Total Phosphorus

2381

PH 14 512 H2S 1 843

Nitrate 10 572 Total Nitrogen

153

906/11/2002

TEMPERATURE

1006/11/2002

SALINITY

1106/11/2002

DISSOLVED OXYGEN

1206/11/2002

PHOSPHATE

1306/11/2002

CHLOROPHYLL

1406/11/2002

QUALITY CHECKS

All the data have been checked for quality according to the IOC/ICES and MAST recommendations:

QCO : Automatic check of the format QC1 : Automatic and visual check of the

headers and dupplicates QC2 : Automatic and visual check of the data

points As a result, the redundant data are eliminated and a

quality flag is added to each numerical value (GTSPP flag scale)

1 90 1 2 3 4 5 9

No QC Correct Inconsistent Doubtful Bad Changed Missing

1506/11/2002

Automatic ChecksResult

Duplicate data sets: EDate E orShip velocity E orLocation/shoreline E orBottom sounding (ETOPO5)

E= Elimination= Correction/Interpolation= Flag «Inconsistant with statistics»

- no correction

QC-1 : check of the time, location & duplicates

1606/11/2002

QC-2 : check of the data points

Automatic ChecksResult

Pressure + one more observation (E)Out of the regional scale

(min & max values)Increasing pressure

Data below the bottom depthCoherence with pre-existing statistics

mean & standard deviation (LEVITUS, MODB, MEDATLAS)

No constant profilesSpikesVertical stability

E= Elimination

1706/11/2002

Regional Assembling & QC Implementation

1806/11/2002

Result of the Quality Checks

GOOD FALSEDOUBTFULOUT OF STATISTICS NO QC

1906/11/2002

CLIMATOLOGY – Objective analysis

Computation of Climatological Analysis by Variational Inverse Model (VIM) algorithms

Computation made on finite elements and then re-interpolated on a regular grid (0.2 degrees in Latitude and Longitude)

T, S and bio-chemical climatology reviewed by regional experts and modellers

http://modb.oce.ulg.ac.be/Medar

2006/11/2002

CLIMATOLOGY

Annual , seasonal and monthly climatology Temperature, Salinity

Annual and seasonalOxygen, Silicate, Phosphate Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) in the Black Sea

Annual onlyNitrate, Nitrite, PH, Ammonium, Alkalinity,

ChlorophyllNo climatology

Total Phosphorus and Total Nitrogen

2106/11/2002

CLIMATOLOGY : SOME EXAMPLES

2500 horizontal sections and stations location

2206/11/2002

2306/11/2002

VERTICAL SECTIONS

2500 vertical sections and surface zoom

2406/11/2002

DATA PRODUCT

A

SET

OF 4

CD-ROMS

CD-ROM 2Observed data and SELMED tool for extraction and visualization. Export formats are MEDATLAS, CSV, ODV

CD-ROM 3Gridded climatology : Mediterranean sea and Western Mediterranean basins (maps, figures, numerical fields)

CD-ROM 4Gridded climatology : Black Sea and Eastern – Central Mediterranean basins (maps, figures, numerical fields)

CD-ROM 1HTML documentation on the project and its resultsCruise inventory

2506/11/2002

CD-ROM2 : Observations Database

Total 285 879 multi-disciplinary profiles - A regional contribution to GODAR

SELMED tool for data extraction and visualization Export formats are MEDATLAS (with

full meta-data), CSV (simplified format for Excel) or ODV (simplified format for import in WOCE Ocean Data View software)

2606/11/2002

2706/11/2002

2806/11/2002

CONCLUSIONS

The wide international cooperation has made possible the realization of a comprehensive integrated data base which:Doubles the volume of available observation data compared with the

previous 1997 release Gives information on the sources, the related cruises and the quality

control methodologyProvides improved annual and seasonal gridded climatologogical fields

valuable for scientific purposes like model initialisation and engineering studies in the Mediterranean & Black sea regions

Offers an easy access to the users and simple selection and visualisation tools

Furthermore, sharing expertise and knowhow among the partners, has contributed to : Improve and standardize the data management methodologiesEnhance the whole MEDAR network as a distributed data management

infrastructure, trained in data qualifying, processing, mapping, archiving and communication

2906/11/2002

NEW PERSPECTIVES & TASKS TO MADE

MEDAR Database needs to be regularly updated by integrating :

1) data collected in recent cruises and data collected in real time by automatic systems

2) other important parameters such as pCO2 and currentMEDAR proposes to provide a direct access to the

integrated data sets through a live access server on internet

The regular publication on electronic support should continue

Interface with other data servers shloud be provided

More information on MEDAR on the distributed WWW site:www.ifremer.fr/medar