Reverdin, G., and A.Kartavtseff, 1984. Bouees FOCAL, Mai 1983- October 1984, Recueil des Trajectoires et Series Temporelles, Report, Lab. d'Oceanogr. Phys., Mus. Natl., Paris, 120 pp.
Reverdin, G., and M.J.McPhaden, 1986. Near-surface Current and Temperature Variability Observed in the Equatorial Atlantic from Drifting Buoys. J.Geophys. Res, Vol.91, pp.6569-6581.
This data set and these informational documents were provided to AOML by
Christine Wooding of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
cwooding@whoi.edu
FLOAT FORMAT
The following is a description of the format used to store data from
the surface drifters and SOFAR floats. It is called FLOAT format. The
records are variable length and are stored in an alphanumeric (current-
ly ASCII) format. This format is designed primarily for ease of editing,
manual inspection of data, and transportability to other users and inst-
allations.
Field Position Description
_________ _________ _______________________________________________________
EXPID 001-003 Experiment identifier; character.
source This field is used to indicate the source or type
of data. Usually the first two (2) characters (001
-002) contain the code, such as "CG" for Coast Guard.
BUOYID 004-009 Buoy identifier; character.
This field contains a six (6) character identifier
to be associated with the buoy. The identifier must
be left justified in the field and may not contain
any embedded blanks. Trailing blanks are acceptable.
DATE 010-015 Date; integer.
iyear 010-011 The "DATE" field contains the date of the data
imonth 012-013 observation. The date is stored as a year/month/day
iday 014-015 combination. Only the last two digits of the year
are used. Thus October 4, 1981 is stored as 811004.
The zero is significant as a place holder.
TIME 016-019 Time; integer.
ihour 016-017 The "TIME" field contains the time of the data
iminute 018-019 observation (GMT). The time is stored as a hour/minute
combination. The hour component is taken from 00
to 24 hours. Thus, 3:08 p.m. is stored as 1508.
The zero is significant as a place holder.
LATITUDE 020-026 Latitude, degrees positive for North; real.
This field contains the latitude position of the
float at the time of the data observation.
LONGITUDE 027-034 Longitude, degrees positive for East; real.
This field contains the longitude position of the
float at the time of the data observation.
VALIDITY 035-040 Validity codes; character.
This field is to be used for various validity codes.
Some possible combinations are descibed below.
PROCESS 035 Processing method.
1 - interpolated
3 - splined
4 - manual
5 - averaged
6 - Butterworth filtered
POSITION 036 Position validity. This field is used to specify
a code for those records which have a quality va-
lue associated with the position computation. This
field contains a relative qualitative value for the
reliablity of the measurement. The valid range
of values is currently 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent).
A blank field or a zero is the default and repres-
ents "unassigned."
Codes: 1 fewer than two TOAs or RMS range errors > 10 km
2 two TOAs;
3 more than two TOAs; RMS range errors < 10 km
4 more than two TOAs; RMS range errors < 5 km
5 more than two TOAs; RMS range errors < 2 km
VELOCITY 040 Velocity algorithm.
1 - backward differencing
2 - forward differencing
3 - splined
4 - Chebyshev
5 - averaged
XEAST 041-050 East component of water velocity, cm/sec; real
This and the following field are reserved for
storage of the water velocity components. The
velocity may be computed in any of a variety of
methods; the method used is described in the
appropriate validity field.
A westerly direction of the velocity is negative.
YNORTH 051-060 North component of water velocity, cm/sec; real.
This field contains the local north component of
the water velocity. Velocities to the South are
negative.
FIELD01 061-070 Parameter; real.
FIELD02 071-080 The remainder of the record contains various fields
of data associated with the instrument and position.
(Note that this causes the records to be variable
length, although all records should be the same
length for a given experiment and buoy. Missing
data is indicated by a code value, obtained from
the file "PCODTBL.TXT").
Each field is ten (10) characters long. The first
character of the field will always contain an
indicator of the data field type. The codes are
specified in the file "PCODTBL.TXT". Once the
field type has been determined the remainder of the
field may be processed accordingly.
Nominally the data will be stored in a G9.3 format.
24 PARAMETER UNITS FORM MISSING - ------------ ------------ ---- -------- A WIND_SPEED M/SEC F9.3 -999.0 B WIND_HEAD. DEGREES F9.1 -999.0 C VALIDITY F6.0 0 D VERT_DISP METERS F9.1 -9999.0 E EAST CM/SEC G9.1 -9999.0 F WIND_SP_(H) M/SEC F9.1 -999.0 G WIND_VA_(H) (M/SEC)**2 F9.1 -999.0 H HEADING DEGREES G9.1 -999.0 I reserved G8.0 J JULIAN_DAY DAYS G9.0 -999.0 K UNSMOOTHED_T CENTIGRADE G9.2 -999.0 L WIND_SP_(8) M/SEC F9.1 -999.0 M WIND_VA_(8) (M/SEC)**2 F9.1 -999.0 N NORTH CM/SEC G9.1 -9999.0 O reserved F9.1 P PRESSURE DECIBARS G9.2 -999.0 Q UNSMOOTHED_P DECIBARS G9.2 -999.0 S SALINITY PPM. G9.3 -999.0 T TEMPERATURE CENTIGRADE G9.2 -999.0 V SPEED CM/SEC G9.1 -9999.0 W VERT_VEL METERS/DAY F9.4 -999.0 X LONGITUDE DEGREES F8.3 -999.0 Y LATITUDE DEGREES F7.3 -99.0 Z DEPTH METERS F9.3 -999.0