Exploring underway data

Source: vignettes/lwdata_underway.Rmd

Data collected by the MIDAS underway continuous sampling system on the RV Zeeleeuw and RV Simon Stevin:

How to interpret this dataset

Query options

  • Timeframe: Starting and stopping date for the query.
  • Sample period: Counts aggregated. One of 1 day, 60 min, 10 min or 1 min.

Available columns

  • Time: .Time in UTC, beginning of sample time period.
  • Latitude: Center latitude in decimal degrees, WGS84.
  • Longitude: Center longitude in decimal degrees, WGS84.
  • Temperature: Temperature of the water body, expressed in degrees Celcius.
  • Salinity: Salinity of the water body, expressed in PSU.
  • Conductivity: Conductivity of the water body, expressed in ms/cm.
  • Depth: Depth between the echosounder and the bottom, measured by echosounder 200 kHz, expressed in m.
  • ChlorophylA: Concentration of Chlorophyll A, based on fluoresence, measured by SBE21, expressed in µg/L.
  • SpeedMadeGood: Average speed of the research vessel between a time interval of 5 seconds, expressed in knots.
  • Speedlog: Speed of water, relative to the hull of the RV Simon Stevin, expressed in knots.
  • TrueWindDir: Direction of the wind in deg.
  • TrueWindSpeed: Speed of the wind in m/s.
  • CourseMadeGood: Average heading of the research vessel between a time interval of 5 seconds, expressed in degrees.
  • Gyro: Exact heading of the research vessel, measured by Gyro, expressed in degrees.
  • AirTemperature: Temperature of air, expressed in degrees Celcius.
  • AirPressure: Atmospheric pressure of the air, expressed in mBar.
  • AirHumidity: Relative humidity of the air, expressed in %.

Abstract

MIDAS stands for Marine Information and Data Acquisition System. This suite of programs was developed at Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) to plan the cruises of the RV Zeeleeuw, to register the research activities during these cruises and to capture navigational, metereological and oceanographic parameters while underway.VLIZ supports scientists and administrations by collecting, checking, integrating and re-distributing operational data. Data measurements can take place with VLIZ equipment or equipment from third parties. In the easiest case, instruments are used with the software that has been supplied by the deliverer. In other cases, applications will be developed to automate the whole. Besides this, databases and web applications will be developed to compile and to re-distribute the data. If relevant, the data will also be delivered to international organisations.
  • Underway data Zeeleeuw: these are data that are generated through the continuous measure system on board of the Zeeleeuw. A total of 15 parameters come from 6 different instruments.
  • Cruise data Zeeleeuw: these are the data that are imported during a cruise and come from scientists and Zeeleeuw crew.
  • Casts and deployments: data that are collected with the CTD’s, LISST and ADCP. These instruments are used for depth profiles (casts) or to last into the water for a longer period.

How to cite these data

Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ); (2017): Marine Information and Data Acquisition System: Underway & Cruise data. https://doi.org/10.14284/539. Accessed through the LifeWatch Data Explorer / lwdataexplorer R package.

Availability: UnrestrictedThe data are freely available to anybody and may be used for any purpose. Usage acknowledgement may be required

Please acknowledge as: This work makes use of the LifeWatch observation data and infrastructure (provided by VLIZ) funded by Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) as part of the Belgian contribution to LifeWatch.

These data are also available in the R language with the lwdataxplorer package.