For the labile cobalt analyses, the ligand concentration was often close to or in excess of the total concentration. In these situations, no measurable peak is present in the initial scan prior to standard addition. In these instances, the value is reported as '0' with a flag of 6, indicating that the labile concentration is so low that it is below our detection limit.

Data are flagged with the numbers described below (and found on the Ocean Data View website):
0 = no quality control = No quality control procedures have been applied to the data value. This is the initial status for all data values entering the working archive.
1 = good value = Good quality data value that is not part of any identified malfunction and has been verified as consistent with real phenomena during the quality control process.
2 = probably good value = Data value that is probably consistent with real phenomena but this is unconfirmed or data value forming part of a malfunction that is considered too small to affect the overall quality of the data object of which it is a part.
3 = probably bad value = Data value recognized as unusual during quality control that forms part of a feature that is probably inconsistent with real phenomena.
4 = bad value = An obviously erroneous data value.
5 = changed value = Data value adjusted during quality control. Best practice strongly recommends that the value before the change be preserved in the data or its accompanying metadata.
6 = value below detection = The level of the measured phenomenon was too small to be quantified by the technique employed to measure it. The accompanying value is the detection limit for the technique or zero if that value is unknown.

BCO-DMO made the following edits:
- Changed parameter names.
- Replaced blanks with 'nd' to indicate 'no data'.
- Added cruise_part column & separated KN204-01a and KN204-01b into cruise_id & cruise_part.
- Separated original date field into day, month, and year.
- Added ISO_DateTime_UTC (from the day, month, year, and time fields)
- Corrected event number of KN199-04 station 6 cast 1 from 2026 to 2106 (due to correction in bottle file).
- Corrected event numbers for samples 5622, 6000, 7964. The original sample numbers were correct, however, the event numbers were changed to match those in the event log. (26-April-2013)

Additional GEOTRACES Processing:
After the data were submitted to the International Data Management Office, BODC, the office noticed that important identifying information was missing in many datasets. With the agreement of BODC and the US GEOTRACES lead PIs, BCO-DMO added standard US GEOTRACES information, such as the US GEOTRACES event number, to each submitted dataset lacking this information. To accomplish this, BCO-DMO compiled a 'master' dataset composed of the following parameters: station_GEOTRC, cast_GEOTRC (bottle and pump data only), event_GEOTRC, sample_GEOTRC, sample_bottle_GEOTRC (bottle data only), bottle_GEOTRC (bottle data only), depth_GEOTRC_CTD (bottle data only), depth_GEOTRC_CTD_rounded (bottle data only), BTL_ISO_DateTime_UTC (bottle data only), and GeoFish_id (GeoFish data only). This added information will facilitate subsequent analysis and inter comparison of the datasets.

Bottle parameters in the master file were taken from the GT-C_Bottle_GT10, GT-C_Bottle_GT11, ODF_Bottle_GT10, and ODF_Bottle_GT11 datasets. Non-bottle parameters, including those from GeoFish tows, Aerosol sampling, and McLane Pumps, were taken from the Event_Log_GT10 and Event_Log_GT11 datasets. McLane pump cast numbers missing in event logs were taken from the Particulate Th-234 dataset submitted by Ken Buesseler.

A standardized BCO-DMO method (called "join") was then used to merge the missing parameters to each US GEOTRACES dataset, most often by matching on sample_GEOTRC or on some unique combination of other parameters.

If the master parameters were included in the original data file and the values did not differ from the master file, the original data columns were retained and the names of the parameters were changed from the PI-submitted names to the standardized master names. If there were differences between the PI-supplied parameter values and those in the master file, both columns were retained. If the original data submission included all of the master parameters, no additional columns were added, but parameter names were modified to match the naming conventions of the master file.

See the dataset parameters documentation for a description of which parameters were supplied by the PI and which were added via the join method.

Co_tot_and_labile_GT10-11_joined.csv