Water Level Data Quality Assurance Report
Smith N and Pitts P. 2000. Water Level Data Quality Assurance Report
In accordance with Work Statement, Rev. 3.0, describing the analysis and interpretation of the Biscayne Bay data base, the first deliverable is a Quality Assurance Report (QAR). Accordingly, a report was submitted on September 9, 1999, describing the suitability of the acoustic doppler profiler, water level recorder and weather station data that were collected during the June 1997 to June 1998 field study. After submitting the QAR, we learned that only the first four months of the water level data had been concatenated from individual monthly files, and considerably more data were available from each of the 12 stations. During the past five months, after receiving a second set of CD-ROM disks, we concatenated the full water level time series for each station. This second QAR deals only with the water level records and summarizes the amount and suitability of the water level data available for validating the hydrodynamic model of Biscayne Bay, Card Sound and Barnes Sound. The editing involved in the QA/QX involved checking the monthly time series for gaps in the records, for redundant observations and for inconsistent time annotations (EST vs. EDT). Gaps were found in most of the time series, and they were patched when they were less than one day. Interpolation was by eye, guided by the nature of the tide just prior to and following the gap. An unusual feature of several of the time series was a missing observation in early to mid July, 1997. Time annotations on the raw and datum-adjusted time series did not indicate missing data. The one-hour gap became apparent when the data were plotted, however. Also, harmonic analysis of 29-day time series before and after the gap revealed inconsistencies in the phase angles of the principal tidal constituents. Harmonic constants (local phase angles) from nearby National Ocean Service study sites provided guidance for determining the location and length of the missing data. For each station, we present a plot of low-pass filtered water level data. In the accompanying caption, we note the start and end times, as well as the number of observations, of each data segment. Following the 12 plots, we include a table that contains the harmonic constants of the principal tidal constituents at each location.