11 meeting of the International Argo Steering Team Scripps ...

uncorrectables whose float data did not show observable T/S anomaly, that their adjusted Argo
variables be flagged with the qc flag of ‘2’. That is, PRES_ADJUSTED_QC = ‘2’,
TEMP_ADJUSTED_QC = ‘2’, and PSAL_ADJUSTED_QC = ‘2’. In addition, APEX
uncorrectables that used Druck pressure sensors with serial numbers greater than 2324175 and
which did not report any positive surface pressure values from some point onwards in their time
series should be suspected as microleakers after that point. Post-workshop discussions agreed
to quoting the upper bound of 20 dbar as the uncertainty for this group of pressure data. Other
instrument types in Argo were determined to be able to handle negative pressure errors, as they
were designed to either automatically reset pressure offsets at the sea surface, or telemeter untruncated
surface pressure values for delayed-mode pressure adjustment.
Other matters such as delayed-mode data format and quality consistency were also discussed.
It was agreed that future delayed-mode workshops would be convened when requirement for
one was expressed. Moreover, it would be advantageous to hold future workshops in
conjunction with ADMT events.
5.4 ARCs
Developments at the SAARC
Results of the analysis for the consistency check of Argo profiles are online at
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/sardac/index.php. As defined in the International Argo Data
Management Team, this is done, after the delayed mode qc. The analysis currently performs
comparisons with nearby profiles and climatologies. The mean statistics as well as timedependence
of the differences are analyzed, and diagnostic graphics and tables are generated,
which are published on the Internet. What needs to be added is the generation of reports to the
float PIs.
As of March 2010, there were 590 floats with D files in the SAARC region. For 444 (75%) of
them, the results are available online. An additional 4 have delayed-mode files that are less
than 6 months old and will be processed next.
SAARC developed software to generate maps of float locations color coded by number of
profiles and data quality (for temperature and salinity) to help with deployment planning.
Regarding the action items from 3rd ARC Workshop (September 2009):
The report is available at the AIC, the ADMT and at http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/ARC3_report.pdf
One topic of interest for the AST was how to define what we mean by Argo data products. For
example, would model output that does data assimilation of in situ be considered to be an Argo
product. Maybe the AST is the best group to discuss this.
Another challenge is to keep track of the various products that are produced (complete listing of
product descriptors and qualifiers that is easy to maintain). A table was updated at the ARC
workshop, but it needs more work. Maybe such a listing could be hosted at SIO, which already
has a "gridded Argo products page"?
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