EXPLANATION OF OCEANOGRAPHIC STATION DATA 



A. General 



Each of the items appearing on the data pages Is explained below. The vertical 

 arrows shown in some of the column headings indicate the location of decimal points. 

 The presence of asterisks to the right of data indicates those data are doubtful; hence, 

 they were not used in the construction of the curve from which interpolated values 

 (standard depth values) were derived. Observed values which were obviously invalid 

 were omitted entirely. 



B. Surface Observations 



1 . NODC Ref . No . This number is assigned by the National Oceanographic 

 Data Center. It identifies the cruise and provides a means of sorting from the IBM 

 files all cards pertaining to a particular cruise. 



2. Station. Stations are numbered to designate a certain station location. 

 Stations are numbered consecutively In the chronological order In which they were 

 occupied by cruise. See oceanographic station index, page 84 , to correlate with 

 station numbers appearing on the station location chart. 



3. Date. Month, day, and year are given In Arabic numerals. The hour Is 

 Greenwich Mean Time and is that hour nearest to the messenger time of the first 

 Nansen bottle cast. 



4. Position . Latitude and longitude of the station are given in degrees and 

 minutes; minutes rounded-off to the nearest whole number. 



5. Sonic Depth Uncorrected. Sonic Depth is the uncorrected sounding for the 

 station, recorded in meters. 



6. Max. Sample Depth. The maximum depth from which a water sample was 

 obtained at the station is given to the nearest 100 meters. 



7. Wind. Wind speed is given In meters per second. Direction from which the 

 wind blows is coded In degrees true to the nearest ten degrees. The last zero is 

 omitted. North is 36 on the scale and calm Is 0. See Table 1, Compass Direction 

 Conversion Table for Wind, Sea, and Swell Directions. 



8. Anemometer Height. Not given. 



9. Air Pressure. Barometric pressure of the air Is coded in millibars, neglect- 

 ing the 900 or 1000. Thus, 996 millibars Is coded as 96 and 1008 millibars is coded 

 OS 08. 



10. Air Temperature. Dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures are entered to the 

 nearest tenth of a degree Celsius (°C) . A negative temperature is coded by dropping 

 the minus sign and adding 50; thus -10° is coded as 60. 



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