Online Data Formats

• File Names and File Types
• Processed Data File Format Descriptions
• Raw Data File Format Descriptions
• Data Quality Control Flags

File Names and File Types

All data files available for on-line delivery via this site are plain text files created on a UNIX system, normally compressed using gzip (such files have the extension .gz), or, more recently, using Winzip for Windows on an NT 4.x system. Where a dataset consists of multiple files these have been archived using either:

· UNIX tar with the option cvf. These files are identifiable by the extension .tar.gz.
Or

· Winzip version 8.0 for Windows. These files are identifiable by the extension .zip.
All compressed files can be unpacked using winzip on a PC or stuffit on a Mac.
On UNIX systems, for .tar.gz, use gunzip then tar xvf [filename] where filename is the name of the archive file. For *.zip, use zipinfo to get a file listing, and unzip to decompress the files.
Note: to NETSCAPE users:
Some versions of Nescape may handle files with .gz or .tar extensions incorrectly. The data file should download as a single file with a gz extension EG "filename.txt.gz" or "filename.gz.
There are two potential problems:

1. The file may not decompress, but lose it's .gz extension. If the ".gz" extension is lost, and the file looks binary, please add the .gz extension to the file and decompress in the usual way.
2. The file may decompress, but retain it's gz extension. If the .gz extension remains, and the file won't decompress, remove the .gz extension, and then read the file in the usual way.

(Winzip is available from: http://www.winzip.com/ ).
^M (Stuffit is available from: http://www.aladdinsys.com/expander/index.html ).

Files with the extension .pdf are in Adobe Portable Document Format. To read these files, you will need to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader which is available free from the Adobe Web Site.

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Standard Processed Data File Format Descriptions

The file formats currently being offered as standard processed data products from the Data Centre are described in the documents below. It is our intention to make a wider range of format options available as standard offerings in the near future.

Format Type	Click To View
Standard Hydrology Station Data Format
Hydrology Vessel and Station Codes List as used in the hydrology archive
Standard CTD Station Data Format
CTD ToYoStation Data Format
Standard Underway Data Format
XBT Data Format information
Standard ADCP Data Format (pdf)
Moored BBADCP Data Format (pdf)
Aanderra Current Meter Data Format (pdf)

Standard Raw Data File Format Descriptions

The file formats for raw data, available from the Data Centre, are described .pdf documents in the Data Centre's raw data file formats directory.

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Data Quality Control Flags

New data processing software tools are being developed by CMR Data Centre staff for each of our standard data types. These new tools will implement QC flags as described by Lindsay Pender in Data Quality Control Flags.

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