U.S. JGOFS Equatorial Pacific Niskin Bottle Data Quality Review Notes

During the process of creating merged data products from the Equatorial Pacific Process Study data, we have observed some inconsistencies in the data.  Every effort was made to correct the database, but instances where corrections could not be made have simply been noted here in this table, alphabetically by the principal investigator's name. The bottle data file mentioned below refers to Jim Murray's Niskin bottle data reported for each cruise and bottle/depth mismatches reflect instances where the depths reported for a bottle sample disagree between Jim Murray's bottle data and that reported by other principal investigators.

General comment regarding the Niskin bottle merged data product: Many of the issues presented in the table below relate to bottles that have been quality flagged by Murray as being suspect (qflag equals *).  In addition, Murray corrected the depth data from casts where he suspected mistrips.  In generating the merged Niskin Bottle product, the U.S. JGOFS Data Management Office used the depth data supplied by Murray, which we believe to be the most accurate account of depths at which the bottles actually collected water. When using data from the merged product, selecting only bottles having a good quality flag (qflag equals -), will eliminate many of the remaining issues identified in the tables below.  The original data files (non Murray data identified by object name and principal investigator) still contain suspect depth information for mistripped bottles.

  Thomas Thompson cruise TT007
Object Name Principal Investigator Comments
phyc Bidigare event 02041830, mismatch on depth_n and bottle; in question are the values reported for bottles 17 and 14 at nominal depths of 60 and 90 meters. These depths align correctly with bottles 18 and 15. Bottles 17 and 14 should have depths of 70 and 100 meters; Bigidare typically reports data in two objects (see pigments); when both types of data are reported for an event, Bidigare generally reports data for the same bottles perhaps suggesting depth/bottle misalignment in the phyc data file; the bottle/depth data for this event in Bidigare's other data file (pigments) does agree when compared with Murray's bottle data
pigments Bidigare event 02171300, depth_n and bottle numbers don't match with bottle file; looks like replicate sampling but none of the stations/casts close to this cast/event have replicate sampling at these depths; event 03010730, data file contains replicate samples at bot 15,21 and 23
bacteria Kirchman event 02261720 bot 22 depth should be 30 meters;
event 03071545 bottle/depth mismatch: the bottles and depths would match if the event number were changed to 03061530 and such a change would also be consistent with Kirchman's sampling pattern
phyt Landry event 03040605 bottle/depth mismatch: if the event number is changed to 03040702, the bottle/depth mismatches fall into place; event 03040605 is a 12 bottle cast (Landry reports data from 14 bottles) and the depths sampled are not consistent with Landry's sampling levels; a review of his sampling pattern shows he samples from casts with many other PIs
poc Newton event 02031635: depth_n values are mismatched with bottle numbers; event 02040845: depth_n values disagree with Murray bottle data; event 02101209: depth_n values are mismatched with bottle numbers; realignment is not possible; event 02150700: depth_n values do not align correctly with bot numbers
tco2_man Quay event 03010354 bottle/depth mismatch: 10 meter difference for one observation, bot 18 at 64.5 or bot 19 at 54.5; possible solutions are: bottle 19 at 54 meters or bottle 18 at 64 meters

  Thomas Thompson cruise TT008
Object Name Principal Investigator Comments
phyc Bidigare event 03211119: bottle 24 reported at 0 depth, Murray reports bottle 24 at a depth of 398.7 as a result of a mistrip; bottle 24 is generally the shallowest bottle; event 0331109: bottles 11 and 12 mislabeled, suggest they should be 7 and 5 to agree with the depths
TCO2 Goyet event 03211119: the depth values for bottles 23 through 1 are incorrect; Goyet has not adjusted for bottles 1 and 24 tripping at the same depth; event 03211830: bottle numbers 23, 21, 19, and 17 should be adjusted downward by one to agree with the reported depths; Murray reported no depths and assigned a bad qflag (*) for bottles 23, 21, 19 and 17

  Thomas Thompson cruise TT011
Object Name Principal Investigator Comments
tco2 Archer depths and bottles are misaligned due to bottle tripping problems; Murray's bottle file has been corrected for this problem whereas Archer's has not; Archer's data from events impacted by this problem: 09061605, 09062030, 09070738, 09072345, 09080727, 09081206, 09082240, 09091210, 09091605, 09100658 will appear at Murray's depths in the merged product
phyc Bidigare the depths and bottles are misaligned due to bottle tripping problems; Murray's bottle file has been corrected for this problem whereas Bidigare's has not; Bidigare's data from events impacted by this problem: 09061214, 09091605 and 09110121 will appear at Murray's depths in the merged product
pigments Bidigare

incorrect event number: event 08120654 is a 12 bottle cast and Bidigare routinely reports 15 bottles; we believe the next cast event, 08120820 (a 24 bottle cast), which matches the bottle/depths reported, is the correct event number

incorrect event number: event 08141608 is a 12 bottle cast and Bidigare routinely reports 15 bottles; we believe the next cast event, 08141810 (a 24 bottle cast), which matches the bottle/depths reported, is the correct event number

event 08171825: Bidigare reports bottle 16 at 80 meters; bottle 15 at 90 meters; Murray reports bottles 15 and 16 both fired at 90 meters; it is not possible to determine which depth is correct

incorrect event number: event 08180657 is a 12 bottle cast and Bidigare routinely reports 15 bottles; not clear which event number is correct as the bottle/depths match for the events before and after the event in question

the depths and bottles are misaligned due to bottle tripping problems; Murray's bottle file has been corrected for this problem whereas Bidigare's has not; Bidigare's data from events impacted by this problem: 09051225, 09061820, 09070738, 09080727, 09090714, 09091605, 09100658 and 09110315 will appear at Murray's depths in the merged product
nutrients Garside

event 08140700 depths and bottle data are misaligned: looks like Garside adjusted his data to reflect a mistrip, he has bottles 1 and 2 tripping at the deepest depth resulting in no surface sample and all the other bottles adjusted downward one sampling interval; a problem also eventually identified by Murray; Garside identifies this cast as having possible mistrips in his list of problem casts based on NO3 and T/S relationships; although the DMO believes the bottles fired at depths as reported by Garside we opted to omit this event from the merged product to prevent mismatched data

event 09061214 and 09110121: bottle 24 tripped with bottle 1 (deepest sample) all the other bottles tripped at the expected depths; Garside reports bottle 24 at a surface depth
phyt Landry

event 08171825: bottle 16 is reported at depth of 90 decibars while Bidigare reports 80 meters; bottle 15 also reported at 90 dbars; it is not possible to determine which depth is correct

the depths and bottles are misaligned due to bottle tripping problems; Murray's bottle file has been corrected for this problem where as Landry's has not; Landry's data from events impacted by this problem: 09061820, 09080727 and 09081810 will appear at Murray's depths in the merged product

event 09110121 bottle 24 mistripped at 400 decibars; Landry reported bottle 24 as a surface value in his original data, but we have placed that data at 400 decibars in the merged product
chl Newton

Newton reports bottle 24 at a depth of 0 meters for events 09061214 and 09110121; Murray flags this bottle as a mistrip, tripping with bottle 1 at 397.7 meters

the depths and bottles are misaligned due to bottle tripping problems; Murray's bottle file has been corrected for this problem where as Newton has not; Newton's data from events impacted by this problem: 09061820, 09070738, 09080727, 09081206, 09081810, 09090714 and 09100658 will appear at Murray's depths in the merged product
poc Newton

Newton reports bottle 24 at a depth of 0 meters for event 09110121; Murray flags this bottle as a mistrip, tripping with bottle 1 at 397.7 meters

the depths and bottles are misaligned due to bottle tripping problems; Murray's bottle file has been corrected for this problem where as Newton has not; Newton's data from events impacted by this problem: 09061820, 09070738, 09080727, 09081810, 09090714 and 09100658 will appear at Murray's depths in the merged product
tco2_man Quay event 09082240, bottle 24 tripping problems as noted above for Archer/tco2; this affects only one sample this cast

event 09110315, bottle 23 tripping problems as noted above for Bidigare/pigment; this affects only one sample this cast
dino Verity

event 08171825 bottle 16 depth is incorrect; there was no 80 meter bottle for this cast so the DMO believes the correct depth is 90 meters and not 80 meters as reported; same as Bidigare/pigment

event 09080727 bottle mistripping problems as noted above for Newton and Murray/poc

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