A summary of quality control tests for waves and in situ currents and their effectiveness

Abstract

This paper summarizes the quality control (QC) tests used to verify ocean wave and in situ current data collected and shared by ocean observing systems, federal data centers and oceanographic research institutions. The categories in common for both waves and currents are defined as: (1) sensor health, (2) signal quality, and (3) parameter quality. The main differences being that while wave measurements require an additional category of spectral quality tests, the in situ current measurements from ADCPs require overall profile quality tests. Implementing QC tests and measuring their effectiveness has identified the need for multi-parameter quality control algorithms. While the threshold of a given parameter can vary due to the environment, it can be tuned. The Quality Assurance of Real-Time Ocean Data (QARTOD) workshops and subsequent work has directly led to the results presented in this paper.