My query is in regard to QARTOD tests for the Coastal Pioneer (New England) glider data. I am studying the 9-year (2014-2022) changes in water column optical properties at this site. We are in the beginning stages of downloading and applying QC/QA tests to the latest cp glider data available on ERDDAP Tabledap. The gliders’ CTD data currently has QARTOD values included, which we are using to remove questionable T, S, and density data, but there is no QARTOD assessment yet available for the bio-optics bb, cdom, chl, and PAR. We are therefore creating our own tests to assure accuracy and, as much as possible, intercalibration of the bio-optical parameters between the many glider missions we will use for our time series. We are specifically interested in the global range tests and climatology tests.
Can anyone direct me to the best person(s) to speak to about doing this? I would like to adhere as closely as possible to the QARTOD protocols accepted by the OOI community and don’t want to reinvent the wheel if someone has already decided on the best approaches. Or perhaps our efforts can be used to contribute to the ongoing QARTOD efforts for the coastal pioneer gliders. Any advice is appreciated!
Hi Bob,
Currently, OOI currently does not generate and apply QARTOD flags to the CP glider data. We do provide a tabulated list of ranges for some QARTOD tests of gliders optical sensor data. The values listed in the github link below are for the CE gliders but most of the range values would be applicable to the CP gliders you are working with, particularly the “fail_spans” qc-lookup/qartod at master · oceanobservatories/qc-lookup · GitHub.
When the glider data are submitted to the IOOS GDAC, the GDAC also adds QARTOD flags for CTD parameters, but not yet for other sensors. OOI applies a fairly standard set of post-processing to data submitted to the IOOS GDAC, such as eliminating very short profiles, segment data by profile direction, and we add metadata to make everything compliant for the GDAC and for NCEI.
For fixed depth assets, OOI is adhering as closely as is reasonable to the IOOS recommendations. Many of the community best-practices for quality-controlling and validating optical data are documented in the OOI Biogeochemical Sensor Data: Best Practices & User Guide. Many end-users would prefer to apply their own post-processing from the raw-data, which we also store (rawdata.oceanobservatories.org). I think the various approaches are becoming more and more convergent. There is also ongoing effort within the glider community, e.g. the one initiated by Ocean Gliders, that would result in a common set of glider best practices, including how to handle “delayed-mode” processing. OceanGlidersCommunity · GitHub. I do think that the time is ripe to produce a more curated set of glider data, and your current work on Pioneer NES 2014-2022 may be broadly appreciated.