Quality Assurance of Real-Time Oceanographic Data QARTOD IV – Final Report Fourth Workshop on the QC/QA of Real-Time Data.

Abstract

QARTOD is a continuing multi-agency effort formed to address the quality assurance and quality control issues of the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) community. The first workshop was held at the NOAA NDBC office in Bay St. Louis, MS in the winter of 2003. Over 80 participants attended with the primary task of developing minimum standards for calibration, quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) methods, and metadata. The workshop resulted in a report that summarized the recommendations on these issues and on future workshops. QARTOD II (second workshop) was held February 28-March 2, 2005 in Norfolk, VA, and focused on QA/QC issues in HF radar measurements and wave and current measurements’ unique calibration and metadata requirements. QARTOD III was held on November 2-4, 2005 at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA. It continued the work on waves and current measurements, as well as commencing work on CTD measurements and HF Radar. QARTOD IV was held at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, June 21 - 23, 2006. QARTOD addresses the challenges related to the collection, distribution and description of real-time oceanographic data. One of the primary challenges facing the oceanographic community will be the fast and accurate assessment of the quality of data streaming from the IOOS partner systems. Operational data aggregation and assembly from distributed data sources will be essential to the ability to adequately describe and predict the physical, chemical and biological state of the coastal ocean. These activities demand a trustworthy and consistent quality description for every observation distributed as part of IOOS. Significant progress was accomplished in previous workshops towards the definition of requirements both for data evaluation and relevant data flags for real-time QC. The intent of QARTOD IV was to report on the recommended quality (QC) descriptions for parameters such as waves and currents and to develop guides for best practices to assure data quality.