Quality assurance and control on hydrological data off western Sardinia (2000–2004), western Mediterranean

Abstract. Seven oceanographic cruises in five years were organized in the Sardinia Sea with the repeated collection of physical, chemical and biological data. An accurate and sustained quality assurance on physical sensors was acted through prior and post-cruise calibration and verified during in-situ acquisitions with the use of redundant sensors and other instruments. Moreover, for dissolved oxygen and conductivity, seawater samples at standard depths were frequently analyzed on-board. Then an accurate quality control was used to verify all hydrological data profiles, that passed a further quality check following standard procedures. Finally all hydrological data have been included in two online public open access datasets in the SEANOE repository (https://doi.org/10.17882/59867 and https://doi.org/10.17882/70340, Ribotti et al., 2019a, b). During and after all cruises also chlorophyll and nutrients analyses were carried on but data are not yet open access; the same for water current profiles, both at casts and during vessel moves, and geophysical data. These ocean data are the first covering the whole Sardinia Sea for its whole extension. Here data and assurance/control procedures used are described as they became standards in deep sea acquisitions in the years.