CTD Specific

Exchange CTD files follow all the common format specifications with the addition of some header information. They MUST only contain one profile per file.

Additional CTD Headers

Rather than encode information which would remain constant throughout the cast with the Data Lines, Exchange CTD files store this information in headers that appear after the Optional Comment Lines, but before the Parameter and Unit Lines. These headers follow the basic form:

PARAM = VALUE

Where the PARAM is some parameter name (e.g. DEPTH) and the VALUE is the value for that parameter (e.g. 4523). The PARAM, with the exception of NUMBER_HEADERS, must be listed in the Parameters section. The format of VALUE must conform to the data type listed for the parameter in the Parameters section. The PARAM and VALUE are seperated by a EQUALS SIGN (U+003D) =, there is no meaning to any whitespace. Each param-value pair ends end with a line-ending character. Here is an example of a complete set of CTD headers (note that we have included line numbers, these are not part of the header):

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NUMBER_HEADERS = 10
EXPOCODE = 318M20130321
SECT_ID = P02W
STNNBR = 1
CASTNO = 2
DATE = 20130322
TIME = 2205
LATITUDE =  32.5068
LONGITUDE =  133.0297
DEPTH =   166

Notice three things: the special NUMBER_HEADERS parameter, the parameter names are all caps, and none of the parameters have units.

The units for each parameter are defined by convention rather than explicitly stated in each file, see the CTD required headers for information on which headers are required.

CTD required headers

The following CTD headers are REQUIRED, see the Parameters section for the description of each, except for the NUMBER_HEADERS which is described below:

Note

TIME is not a required parameter, this is not an omission from the list above.

Warning

There is no support for including units in the CTD headers it is not reccomended that any parameters which could have multiple units be included in the CTD headers.

Usually the optional DEPTH parameter is the only one with units commonly found in CTD headers, it MUST be in meters when included in the CTD headers.

NUMBER_HEADERS

The NUMBER_HEADERS parameter is an integer describing how many lines the headers will be before the parameter and unit lines. The value of NUMBER_HEADERS includes itself it is REQUIRED and MUST be the first line after any Optional Comment Lines.

Warning

The most common mistake with Exchange CTD Headers is not including the NUMBER_HEADERS line in the calculation of the number of lines the headers occupy. It would be incorrect in the above example to have NUMBER_HEADERS = 9.

CTD Optional Headers

The following CTD headers are optional, but encountered frequently within ctd exchange files:

Preferred Header Order

The only header which must come first is NUMBER_HEADERS. Other header parameters may come in any order, however, there is a preferred order. The preferred order after NUMBER_HEADERS is:

EXPOCODE
SECT_ID
STNNBR
CASTNO
DATE
TIME
LATITUDE
LONGITUDE
DEPTH

Example CTD Data

Here is an example of a complete exchange CTD file (though a very shallow profile):

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CTD,20130709ODF
# REPORTED CAST DEPTH IS CTD_DEPTH + DISTANCE_ABOVE_BOTTOM AT MAX PRESSURE
NUMBER_HEADERS = 10
EXPOCODE = 318M20130321
SECT_ID = P02W
STNNBR = 1
CASTNO = 2
DATE = 20130322
TIME = 2205
LATITUDE =  32.5068
LONGITUDE =  133.0297
DEPTH =   166
CTDPRS,CTDPRS_FLAG_W,CTDTMP,CTDTMP_FLAG_W,CTDSAL,CTDSAL_FLAG_W,CTDOXY,CTDOXY_FLAG_W
DBAR,,ITS-90,,PSS-78,,UMOL/KG,
      2.0,2,  19.1840,2,  34.6935,2,    220.8,2
      4.0,2,  19.1992,2,  34.6924,2,    220.7,2
      6.0,2,  19.2002,2,  34.6922,2,    220.5,2
      8.0,2,  19.2022,2,  34.6919,2,    220.5,2
     10.0,2,  19.2033,2,  34.6918,2,    220.6,2
     12.0,2,  19.2039,2,  34.6919,2,    220.8,2
     14.0,2,  19.2033,2,  34.6919,2,    220.9,2
     16.0,2,  19.2029,2,  34.6916,2,    220.6,2
END_DATA

The structure is:

Structure of ZIP CTD Archives

Since exchange CTD files only contain one profile, it is convient to package them into entire an archive containing an entire cruise. The archve format exchange uses is zip, specifically PKZIP 2.0. The zip archive allows for a large varity of structure so it is nessessary to define the structure here.

Exchange CTD zip files MUST contain a flattened structure, that is, only files with no directory paths. The files within the zip SHOULD be in the same order in which the stations were done. Usually this means the filenames contain numerical information reguarding the station order. All the files within the zip MUST have the _ct1.csv file extention.

Here is an example a correct ctd exchange zip archive (the output of unzip -l):

Archive:  33RO20131223_ct1.zip
  Length     Date   Time    Name
 --------    ----   ----    ----
   401802  04-10-14 17:27   33RO20131223_00001_00002_ct1.csv
   388950  04-10-14 17:27   33RO20131223_00002_00001_ct1.csv
   385278  04-10-14 17:27   33RO20131223_00003_00002_ct1.csv
   400573  04-10-14 17:27   33RO20131223_00004_00001_ct1.csv
   395069  04-10-14 17:27   33RO20131223_00005_00002_ct1.csv
 --------                   -------
  1971672                   5 files

Notice the lack of directory paths in the archive names, it is simply filenames. The following is an example of an incorrectly packaged archive, which has archive names containing directory structure (notice the / in the names):

Archive:  33RO20131223_ct1.zip
  Length     Date   Time    Name
 --------    ----   ----    ----
   401802  04-10-14 17:27   33RO20131223_ct1/33RO20131223_00001_00002_ct1.csv
   388950  04-10-14 17:27   33RO20131223_ct1/33RO20131223_00002_00001_ct1.csv
   385278  04-10-14 17:27   33RO20131223_ct1/33RO20131223_00003_00002_ct1.csv
   400573  04-10-14 17:27   33RO20131223_ct1/33RO20131223_00004_00001_ct1.csv
   395069  04-10-14 17:27   33RO20131223_ct1/33RO20131223_00005_00002_ct1.csv
 --------                   -------
  1971672                   5 files

Note

Currently, the bahavior when other files or directories are present is undefined. The reccomended bahavior when encountering directories or other (non _ct1.csv) files is to ignore the extra files while warning the user of their presence.