Overview

Converting a Seaglider mission to OG1 needs metadata the basestation files do not carry, carry only in part, or carry wrongly. That configuration sits at three levels, from fixed to per-mission.

Package defaults

Some default mappings are shipped with the package including canonical units and conversion, the mapping from specific basestation variables to OG1 variables, and the OG1 controlled vocabularies. They are the same for every mission and are not user configuration; see Packaged defaults and your local tables. A variable OG1 does not specify keeps its basestation name — in this case, you can set a local vocabulary choice (see below).

Fleet-level config

Some metadata rarely changes between deployments: your institution and its EDMO code, and, in the future, vocabulary choices for variables OG1 does not specify. At the moment, the institution and contributor records are repeated in each mission’s mission.yaml. A future fleet.yaml will hold them once for a fleet or institution, set in one place rather than per mission (see the tip on Packaged defaults and your local tables).

Mission-level config

The mission.yaml you keep beside the data carries everything specific to one deployment (see mission.yaml reference for every key). The file name is yours — mission.yaml is only the default seagliderOG1 init writes, and seagliderOG1 process my_mission.yaml works just as well; the convention is one configuration per discrete glider mission, so one configuration makes one OG1 file. It carries:

  • who and where — the PI and contributors, the institution(s) with their EDMO codes, and discovery metadata;

  • the platform — its WMO number, serial number, model and depth rating;

  • the data — the raw-data directory, the dive range, and the data mode;

  • corrections — fixes for errors in the basestation calibration metadata (sg_calib_constants.m → sg_cal_calibcomm*), such as a wrong instrument serial number, through the sensors: block.

Generating a starting configuration

seagliderOG1 init writes a commented mission.yaml to edit; with --raw-dir it fills raw_dir and the platform block from the basestation files:

$ seagliderOG1 init sg005.yaml --raw-dir /data/sg005/

Generating a configuration from Python (a mission.template(), and a fleet.template() for the fleet file) is planned for a future release.

What the conversion report checks

The configuration need not be complete before the first run. seagliderOG1 report (and process --report) writes an HTML page that checks the configuration against the data and suggests fixes: it proposes an EDMO code when your institution name matches the packaged registry, and flags recommended metadata that is missing or platform fields written as UNK. See The conversion page.