FOCI Standard Operating Instructions

January 2002
5.2 Scientific Computer System - The ship's Scientific Computer System (SCS) shall operate throughout the cruise, acquiring, and logging data from navigation, meteorological, oceanographic, and fisheries sensors.  The SCS data acquisition node will provide project scientists with the capability of monitoring sensor acquisition via text and graphic displays.  A data processing node will be available to project scientists throughout the cruise, configured according to the specifications of the FOCI SCS administrators.

Sensor identification, data acquisition, and logging parameters are specified in the system file SENSOR.DAT.  The ship’s SCS manager shall maintain this file in a current state throughout the cruise.  The FOCI SCS administrators, at the start of the field operations season, will provide specific FOCI requirements for the content of the SENSOR.DAT file.  A listing of the sensor specifications is attached as an appendix to these Standard Operating Instructions; the appendix is normally added by the beginning of February.  Changes to the SENSOR.DAT specifications may be made by the ship's SCS manager on a cruise-by-cruise basis at the request of the Chief Scientist. All changes in content of the SENSOR.DAT file shall be communicated to the FOCI SCS administrators.

SCS sensor data logged to disk files is organized into several logical groupings according to intended post-cruise processing.  The FOCI SCS administrators specify these logical groupings at the start of the field operations season.  The ship's SCS manager will assign data elements from newly installed sensors to the appropriate logical group(s) and inform the FOCI SCS administrators of such changes.

At regular intervals, not to exceed every five days, the ship's SCS manager will archive data from disk files to recordable compact diskettes (CD-RW) for delivery to the project representative at the end of the cruise.  Additional recording of processed data may be requested of the ship's SCS manager; if so, specific instructions will be found in the Cruise Instructions.  The ship's SCS manager will ensure data quality through the administration of standard SCS protocols for data monitoring.  If requested by the Chief Scientist, standard SCS daily quality assurance summaries will be prepared for review.  During the cruise, the scientific party may require the assistance of the ship's SCS manager to determine if all sensors are functioning properly and to monitor some of the collected data in real time to make sampling strategy decisions.

The FOCI SCS co-administrators are:

allen.macklin@noaa.gov