Source: U.S. IOOS
As part of the U.S. IOOS Data Management and Communication (DMAC) core services, the U.S. IOOS Program Office has released the fifth QARTOD manual; Real-Time Quality Control of Water Level Data. This document represents significant progress towards more effective collection and processing of real-time water level observations using best-practices for quality control tests with codeable instructions.
In February 2012, the US IOOS Program Office formally established the Quality Assurance for Real Time Oceanographic Data (QARTOD) project to ensure a systematic process for establishing standard procedures for the quality assurance/quality control of key ocean observation data. The project is conducted in partnership with NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center. Each manual provides a check list of QC tests for data collected in real-time and includes control steps for the sensors, in addition to those for collected data, which are critical to guaranteeing quality of the data. Each test contains codeable instructions for implementation and assumes the involvement of knowledgeable scientists, engineers, programmers, and technicians. Suggestions for QA best practices are provided in the appendix as a courtesy to the manual user.
These publications represent a major step forward for US IOOS in documenting best practices for QA/QC for the ocean observing community. This manual is the fifth in a series of similar quality control manuals that IOOS will publish, each focused on a different oceanographic variable.
For more information, please click here.
