# Please confirm timestamp of Southern Ocean deployment 0002

**URL:** <https://discourse.oceanobservatories.org/t/please-confirm-timestamp-of-southern-ocean-deployment-0002/319>\
**Category:** HelpDesk\
**Tags:** cgsn\
**Created:** [October 28, 2021, 12:05am UTC](https://discourse.oceanobservatories.org/t/please-confirm-timestamp-of-southern-ocean-deployment-0002/319 "2021-10-28T00:05:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![natalie.freeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ec9cab/32.png) [@natalie.freeman](https://discourse.oceanobservatories.org/u/natalie.freeman)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 12:05am UTC](https://discourse.oceanobservatories.org/t/please-confirm-timestamp-of-southern-ocean-deployment-0002/319/1 "2021-10-28T00:05:53Z")

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Hi OOI,

Using the reference “seconds since 1900-01-01 0:0:0”, my conversion of the GS01SUMO deployment 0002 file:

_“deployment0002\_GS01SUMO-SBD11-06-METBKA000-recovered\_host-metbk\_a\_dcl\_instrument\_recovered\_20151217T000015.142000-20161128T070124.679000.nc”_

yields a first timestamp of **17-Dec-2015 00:00:15** (with a sampling frequency roughly every 1 minute thereafter). Please confirm, as a closer look at diurnal cycling (air temperature, etc.) would suggest a slight offset (order of hours). Or perhaps this is an issue of interpreting this timestamp as local time vs. UTC time, for example.

Thanks in advance for any clarification you can provide!  
-Natalie

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**Author:** ![swhite](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.oceanobservatories.org/swhite/32/31_2.png) [@swhite](https://discourse.oceanobservatories.org/u/swhite)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 3:28pm UTC](https://discourse.oceanobservatories.org/t/please-confirm-timestamp-of-southern-ocean-deployment-0002/319/2 "2021-10-28T15:28:53Z")

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@natalie.freeman,

Time should all be UTC. So if you were assuming it was local, that could be the issue.

Thanks and stay safe,  
Sheri N. White  
OOI/CGSN Data Team

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**Author:** ![natalie.freeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ec9cab/32.png) [@natalie.freeman](https://discourse.oceanobservatories.org/u/natalie.freeman)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 5:30pm UTC](https://discourse.oceanobservatories.org/t/please-confirm-timestamp-of-southern-ocean-deployment-0002/319/3 "2021-11-09T17:30:36Z")

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Thanks, @swhite, adjusting for UTC-6 looks more realistic. That first timestamp is now **16-Dec-2015 18:00:15** , local to the mooring. It’s unfortunate that this information is not consistently noted across the various time variables in the netcdf files. I’ve been working exclusively with the variable ‘time’ (which has no time zone info) but now I see that others (but not all), like ‘internal\_timestamp,’ have UTC indicated.

Thanks again!  
-Natalie

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**Author:** ![swhite](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.oceanobservatories.org/swhite/32/31_2.png) [@swhite](https://discourse.oceanobservatories.org/u/swhite)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 4:08pm UTC](https://discourse.oceanobservatories.org/t/please-confirm-timestamp-of-southern-ocean-deployment-0002/319/4 "2022-01-06T16:08:09Z")

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