Scenario: ASCII Data from a Variety of Instruments (FIT Lagoon Study)

CASE STUDY UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Tools at a Glance

This case study describes an experiment that gathered data from a atmospheric and submerged sensors, collected in ASCII format.

Project Background

This case study describes a component of an ongoing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) project titled: An Ensemble-Based Approach to Forecasting Surf, Set-Up, and Surge in the Coastal Zone. The project studied the interactions between the atmosphere and a local estuary. The research team from the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) is interested in high impact wind events on coastal estuaries, specifically the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) in Southeastern Florida. This project was funded by NOAA's CSTAR program.

Data Collected

FIT Primary Investigator Steve Lazarus, research personnel Mike Splitt and graduate student Peyman Taebb among other students and faculty began working on this project on July 1st 2014 and are funded through June 2017. They set up three water level gauges on piers in the lagoon. Each water level gauge was a Titanium water level gauge (HOBO U20 Water Level/Logger) and were purchased in late summer 2014. Resolution of the gauge is less than 0.02 kPa and had a time response less than 1 second between data collection and recording. Water level error is on the order of 0.5 cm. The gauges are housed in PVC stilling wells that were built in-house at FIT.

Each submerged water level gauge records changes in the pressure (weight) of the water column above it. After adjusting for fluctuations in atmospheric pressure (using pressure data from a nearby ASOS surface station), water level anomalies were calculated at the nominal measurement frequency of five minutes. This was done by subtracting the time fluctuating water column height from a 3-month temporal mean. A time stamp along with the water level anomaly (and temperature) were manually downloaded using a data shuttle every three months so as to avoid overwriting the logged data. Data were saved in an ASCII file format.

Tools Used for Data Processing and Analysis

The ASCII data files were brought back to FIT, exported from the shuttle, and subsequently imported into a spreadsheet on a local computer. As previously mentioned, some data post-processing was necessary in order to correct for variations in the atmospheric pressure in the water level anomalies. This correction procedure was originally performed within the the excel spreadsheets, but an algorithm was later written using R code.

Data Storage Strategy and Tools Used

The data from the water gauges are stored on local FIT computers in spreadsheets, with each spreadsheet containing the water level anomalies from a single site.

Data Access Strategy and Tools Used

Majority of internal data sharing is done by emailing the individual spreadsheets to individuals on the research team or by accessing it on FIT's internal cloud server.

In addition the data is being shared to a local FIT based entity called the Indian River Lagoon Institute. Interested parties outside the research team or the Indian River Lagoon Institute may access the cloud server if the link is shared with them.

Data Archiving Stragegy and Tools Used

To increase the ease of access to a wider range of audience, Dr. Lazarus has also considered storing his final data set in the Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association (SECOORA) data portal.