Quality Assurance of Real-Time Oceanographic Data from the Cabled Array of the Ocean Observatories Initiative

Orest Eduard Kawka, University of Washington, School of Oceanography, Seattle, WA, United States, Julie S. Nelson, Grays Harbor College, Chemistry, Aberdeen, WA, United States, Dana Manalang, University of Washington, Applied Physics Lab, Seattle, WA, United States and Deborah S Kelley, University of Washington Seattle Campus, School of Oceanography, Seattle, WA, United States
Abstract:
The Cabled Array component of the NSF-funded Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) provides access to real-time physical, chemical, geological, and biological data from water column and seafloor platforms/instruments at sites spanning the southern half of the Juan de Fuca Plate. The Quality Assurance (QA) program for OOI data is designed to ensure that data products meet OOI science requirements. This overall data QA plan establishes the guidelines for assuring OOI data quality and summarizes Quality Control (QC) protocols and procedures, based on best practices, which can be utilized to ensure the highest quality data across the OOI program. This presentation will highlight, specifically, the QA/QC approach being utilized for the OOI Cabled Array infrastructure and data and will include a summary of both shipboard and shore-based protocols currently in use. Aspects addressed will be pre-deployment instrument testing and calibration checks, post-deployment and pre-recovery field verification of data, and post-recovery “as-found” testing of instruments. Examples of QA/QC data will be presented and specific cases of cabled data will be discussed in the context of quality assessments and adjustment/correction of OOI datasets overall for inherent sensor drift and/or instrument fouling.
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