This post is to announce two changes that are coming to the Argo GDACs on 30 June 2025. Please help us spread this news to other Argo data users.
- Removal of “ar_greylist.txt”
Argo will be removing the aggregated list “ar_greylist.txt” from public access on the GDACs on 30 June 2025. The aggregated grey list was created in the old TESAC era, when QC flags could not be sent on the GTS, and thus was created as a means for operational users to exclude potentially bad data. Nowadays, with the BUFR format, Argo is sending all its data (including the bad data) on the GTS, together with their QC flags. Information in the grey list is transferred to the Argo data files in real-time as QC flags. Users should ingest the QC flags when using Argo data and not rely on the grey list only. The “grey list test”, now renamed the “supplemental sensor exclusion list test”, is only one of 30+ real-time QC tests in Argo. Moreover, it is only a supplemental list of bad data and does not represent the full suite of bad data detected by other QC efforts. Users who rely on the exclusion list alone and do not ingest all the QC flags will not reap the full benefit of all the QC efforts that Argo offers, and will risk including bad data in their usage.
Instructions for DACs and delayed-mode operators after 30 June 2025
The function of RTQC Test 15: supplemental sensor exclusion list test does not change. Coriolis will continue to make an aggregated exclusion list, but it will only be available internally to DACs and delayed-mode operators for QC purposes; i.e. it will not be available publicly. Therefore, after 30 June 2025,
DACs:
- continue to perform RTQC Test 15 as usual
- only send their internal exclusion list to Coriolis (not US GODAE) for aggregation
Delayed-mode operators:
- continue to put questionable sensors on the exclusion list with their DACs as usual
- access the aggregated exclusion list via password protected ftp from Coriolis if needed (details to come)
- DAC “kordi” rename to “kiost”
Under the GDAC dac directory, “kordi” will be renamed as “kiost”. The code “KO” in Reference Table 4, which is used in all the Argo data files, will remain unchanged.