Interrelationship between data management and instrument design

In spite of technological advances in instrument design, data centers continue to encounter data management problems when processing, storing and retrieving marine data. This paper describes the Environmental Data Service´s (EDS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U. S. Department of Commerce, concept of data management, the importance of utilizing what is already known about the environment in establishing instrument design criteria, explores the concept of using dedicated ancillary recorders, and describes the scope of services available to instrument designers from EDS data centers. Too often, instrument systems do not facilitate the integration of ancillary data-navigational information, quality control and/or calibration information with the observed data in order to provide the necessary documentation for secondary use. It shows further that instruments are frequently designed to operate over the broad ranges of environmental conditions rather than limited ranges which would give greater precision or reliability.