SCICEX Expendable Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth (XCTD) Data

OVERVIEW
These data were acquired in the Arctic Ocean during SCICEX 2000 and 2003
using Sippican Inc. XCTD probes. They are provided in two formats: the 
original (raw) Sippican export files (.edf) and processed matlab files (.mat).

The .edf files are in ASCII text. The first 29 lines are header text that
describe what probe was used, the date/time, sequence in the launch, and 
location. The data begin on the 30th line and are arranged in six columns 
separated by a space: depth (m), temperature (°C), conductivity (mS), 
salinity (ppt), sound velocity (m/s), and density (kg/m^3).

The .mat files are matlab binary files created from the .edf files. They
contain a structure of the data. 

DATA ORGANIZATION
The data reside in year directories that indicate when the data were 
acquired: 2000 or 2003. Within the year directories, reside the directories
edffiles and matfiles. The .edf and .mat files reside in these, respectively.

The .edf files are named according to the following convention: CTDzzz.edf.
Where zzz is the probes launch sequence number. 

The .mat files are named according to the following convention: sYYxctdzzz.mat.
Where s stands for Sippican, YY is the 2-digit year, and zzz is the probes 
launch sequence number.

DOWNLOADING DATA VIA FTP
You may download data via your FTP program of choice. Our FTP server 
allows you to download a recursive set of directories with a single 
FTP command (tar-on-the-fly), simply by appending the .tar extension 
to a directory name in the FTP get command. 

For example, using a command-line FTP program, you can download all of 
the SCICEX XCTD files using the following commands:

%ftp sidads.colorado.edu 
     (login as anonymous, and use your e-mail address as password)
ftp>cd /pub/DATASETS/NOAA/G02187/
ftp>get XCTD.tar

This command will generate a tar file on your local disk containing
everything under the subdirectory XCTD.

In most Web browsers, you can also use the tar-on-the-fly capability
by simply appending the .tar extension to the directory name in the
FTP address. For example, to download all of the polar-stereo sea ice
files, enter the following FTP address in your browser's 
location/address field:

ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/pub/DATASETS/NOAA/G02187/XCTD.tar

The browser should prompt for where to save the tar file.

FURTHER INFORMATION
http://nsidc.org/scicex/

CONTACT INFORMATION
User Services
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO USA 80309-0449
Phone: +1 303-492-6199
Fax: +1 303-492-2468
E-mail: nsidc@nsidc.org