SeaLog & QA/QSea 2.2 Data Format

Author

Christopher Swingley1, Gary Drew2, Heather Coletti3

1ABR, Inc. - Environmental Research & Services 2842 Goldstream Rd. Fairbanks, AK 99709

2U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center, 4210 University Dr. Anchorage, AK 99508 (retired)

3National Park Service, 4175 Geist Rd., Fairbanks, AK 99709

Introduction

QA/QSea is a Shiny app written in the R environment. This app was constructed to work in conjunction with SeaLog, a data logging application developed by Department of Interior researchers in Alaska for the collection of at-sea survey data. QA/QSea can read comma delimited text files (csv) and Excel (xlsx) output from SeaLog, provide proofing tools, and generate exportable data files in multiple formats including that used in the North Pacific Pelagic Seabird Database (NPPSD). Note this app cannot read dLOG or any other csv data, as it requires JSON configuration files from SeaLog.

This document defines the data format exported by SeaLog and ingested by QA/QSea, version 2.2. If you have data from a different version or from different software, you may be able to reconfigure your CSV/Excel file so it can be processed by QA/QSea.

You will also need to set up a pair of JSON files defining the fields you were using during data collection (optionalFields.json) and a validation list of species (speciesValidationList.json). Links to the default versions of these files are at the bottom of this document. Details on these files can be found in the SeaLog 2.2 Manual.

Field Definition

The CSV/Excel observation file must contain these fields, in the following order. The fields where Required is Yes, must contain data. All the others are optional. If you have data in any of the optional fields, they must be set to “true” in the optionalFields.json file or they will not be preserved in the outputs and backups.

Field Short description Data Type Required
Vessel Vessel name Text Yes
TxWidth Transect width (m) Integer Yes
TripID Trip ID Text Yes
Transect Transect Text Yes
Record Record number (autonumber) Integer Yes
PortObs Port observer Text No
StarboardObs Starboard observer Text No
PortCondition Port condition Integer No
StarboardCondition Starboard condition Integer No
Beaufort Beaufort code Integer No
Weather Weather Text No
CloudCover Cloud cover Integer No
FogConc Fog concentration Integer No
IceType Ice type Text No
IceConc Ice concentration Integer No
On/OffTx On/Off transect (“ON” or “OFF”) Text Yes
Type Data type (“USER” or “GPS”) Text Yes
ObsSideIO Observer inshore/offshore Text No
ObsSidePS Observer port/starboard Text No
Species Species code (4 letters) Text Yes
Count Species count Integer Yes
PrimaryBehavior Primary behavior Text No
SecondaryBehavior Secondary behavior Text No
Age Age Text No
Sex Sex Text No
Plumage Plumage Text No
Distance Distance from vessel (m) Integer No
Angle Angle from vessel course (°) Integer No
Bin Distance bin Text No
UserSelect1 Custom drop down field Text No
UserSelect2 Custom drop down field Text No
UserText Custom text field Text No
UserNumeric Custom numeric field Float No
Latitude Latitude (WGS84) Float Yes
Longitude Longitude (WGS84) Float Yes
Date Date (local) Text Yes
Time Time (local) Text Yes
GPSTime GPS Timestamp (UTC or with timezone) Text Yes
Comments Observation comments Text No