Shortwave and Longwave Radiation:

Shortwave and Longwave radiation are available at daily 
and 2-minute resolution.

Daily average radiation is computed as a 24 hour average, 
including day and night time values. Also included in daily 
files are time series of the standard deviation and maximum 
of shortwave radiation. Radiation has units of Watts per 
square meter and is measured at a height of 3.5 meters 
above the sea surface. (Instrument height is shown as a 
negative depth in data files).

For detailed information about sampling and sensors, 
see these two related web pages:

  http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/proj_over/sensors.shtml

  http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/proj_over/sampling.html

In ascii format files, you will find data quality and
source codes to the right of the data. In NetCDF format 
files, you will find quality and source variables with 
the same shape as the data. These codes are defined below. 

Using the quality codes you can tune your analysis to 
trade-off between quality and temporal/spatial coverage.

Quality code definitions:

0 = datum missing

1 = highest quality; Pre/post-deployment calibrations agree to within
sensor specifications.  In most cases only pre-deployment calibrations have
been applied

2 = default quality; Pre-deployment calibrations applied.  Default
value for sensors presently deployed and for sensors which were either not
recovered or not calibratable when recovered.

3 = adjusted data; Pre/post calibrations differ, or original data do
not agree with other data sources (e.g., other in situ data or climatology),
or original data are noisy. Data have been adjusted in an attempt to
reduce the error.

4 = lower quality; Pre/post calibrations differ, or data do not agree
with other data sources (e.g., other in situ data or climatology), or data
are noisy.  Data could not be confidently adjusted to correct for error.

5 = sensor or tube failed

Source code definitions:

    0 - No Sensor, No Data 
    1 - Real Time (Telemetered Mode)
    2 - Derived from Real Time
    3 - Temporally Interpolated from Real Time
    4 - Source Code Inactive at Present
    5 - Recovered from Instrument RAM (Delayed Mode)
    6 - Derived from RAM
    7 - Temporally Interpolated from RAM