Processing XBT Cassettes from the NOAA Shipboard Environmental Data Acquisition System (SEAS)

NOAA´s Shipboard Environmental Data Acquisition System (SEAS) has proven to be a reliable and economical system for acquiring digital XBT data at sea and transmitting it via satellite to operational centers and other real-time users. The high resolution profiles captured on the Hewlett Packard digital cassette tapes also offer the delayed-mode user with relatively inexpensive and rapid access to these data. The National Oceanographic Data Center has recently developed a processing system for XBT data recorded on SEAS cassette tapes. This system builds on and incorporates features of NODC´s analog XBT temperature profile processing system, but accommodates special features and requirements of the cassette tapes.