FOREWORD 



The rapid increase in the rate of growth of oceanographic data files has 

 stimulated an awareness of the problems related to the management of large 

 data masses and has motivated attempts to devise new techniques for resolving 

 these problems effectively. Accordingly, the National Data Program for the 

 Marine Environment is concerned with the overall problem as it exists now and 

 OS it is projected into the future. To deal with the immediate problem of pro- 

 cessing existing data with reasonable economy in a reasonable time frame, the 

 Marine Sciences and the Research and Development Departments of the Naval 

 Oceanographic Office and the National Oceanographic Data Center are jointly 

 developing an improved system for the management of ocean data files. This 

 system, which has been referred to as a "live atlas", is conceived as a tool for 

 providing the oceonographer a quick response computer feed-back data analysis 

 capability, whereby questions formulated in response to a product display may 

 be resolved immediately with the appropriate selection of subsequent displays. 



It is essential that the live atlas provide the most extensive, reliable 

 and flexible data base that can be achieved within the limited reserves of 

 quick access computer memory. Accordingly, considerable attention has been 

 given to the problems of improving data quality and of formatting data for 

 minimum storage requirements and maximum speed processing capabilities. This 

 report documents an algorithm developed as a result of studies for improving 

 upon the quality and manageability of the National Oceanographic Data Center 

 Bathythermograph (BT) file. This algorithm is important, since it may be used 

 to improve the quality and manageability of various profile forms, including 

 expendable BT (XBT) and analog salinity-temperature-depth (STD) data. 



T. K. TREADWELL 



Captain, U.S. Navy 



Commander 



U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office 



