General description

• BP = Beginning Position
• SL = string length
• MAND = Mandatory if X in the column
• NDT= Number of data types (ROSCOP)
• NCO = Number of comment lines (textual information on the cruise)

LINE	FIELD Access to codification	DESCRIPTION	BP	SL	TYPE	MAND.
1	1st character	*	1	1	char	X
	cruise	MEDATLAS cruise reference	2	13	char	X
	name	originator cruise name/reference	16	32	char	X
	ship code	SeaDataNet C17 vocabulary list	49	4	char	X
	ship name	SeaDataNet C17 vocabulary list	54	25	char	X
2	start date	DD/MM/YYYY	1	10	char	X
	end date	DD/MM/YYYY	12	10	char	X
	region name	SeaDataNet C19 vocabulary list	23	50	char	X
3	country	Source laboratory IOC country code	1	2	char	X
	address	Laboratory, institution, town	4	75	char
4	name	chief scientist full name	1	40	char	X
	key word	'Project='	42	8	char	X
	project	name of the project	50	28	char
5	key	'Regional Archiving='	1	19	char	X
	data centre	regional archiving centre code	21	2	char	X
	key word	'Availability='	42	13	char	X
	availability	Data Availability code (P/L/C)	55	1	char	X
5+1 to       5+NDT	key word	'Data Type='	1	10	char	X
	data type	SeaDataNet C77 vocabulary list	11	3	char	X
	key word	'n='	15	2	char	X
	number	number of profiles for the type	17	4	num	X
	key word	'QC='	22	3	char	X
	QC	Y/N (Yes or No)	25	1	char	X
6+NDT to 5+NDT+NCO	key word	'COMMENT'	1	7	char
		comment line 1.....	1	80	char
		comment line n	1	80	char

Cruise reference 

Unique code of 13 characters (no blank character allowed)

Example : FI35199706008

FI : Code of the archiving data centre (SeaDataNet L30 vocabulary list)

35 : Country code (IOC) of the institution who performed the measurements

1997 : year of the beginning of the cruise

06008 : reference given by the data center or the originator

BP = Beginning Position

SL = string length

FIELD Access to codification	DESCRIPTION	BP	SL	TYPE	MAND.
Data centre code	Regional data centre in charge of the dataset (SeaDataNet L30 vocabulary list)	1	2	char	X
Country code	Country of the institution who performed the measurements Country code (IOC)	3	2	char	X
Year	Year of the beginning of the cruise : format yyyy	5	4	number	X
Serial number	number given by the data center or by the originator	9	5	char	X

Detailed explanation

• Only the first line of the cruise header begins with a '" * ".
• If the originator cruise name is mission, find an appropriate cruise name ex SHIP NAME YEAR or repeat the reference
• Ship code list
• If not exists, request one to accessions@ices.dk or on line at http://vocab.ices.dk/Request/
• If the ship is unknown : ship code = ZZ99, ship Name = UNKNOWN
• The sea region, country codes, ship codes and ship names, confidentiality, data centre and quality flags codes should follow strictly the codes given predefined lists
• Chief scientist full name request to be filled with "UNKNOWN" if no information available
• The number of "Data Type" lines is not limited, but should include the code of the file data type and the number behind is the number of this type of profiles (example, for a file with 10 stations with Nitrate measurements, the following line should be added : Data Type=H22 n=12 QC=Y
• After "COMMENT" it is possible to include as many comment lines as useful (especially to keep information of the sensor types)