TRACKOB

Report of marine surface observation along a ship's track


Section 1

NNXX YY MM J

Section 2

GGgg/ Qc LaLaLaLa LoLoLoLoLo 4mTmSmc ic (6sn TwTwTw) (8S0S0S0S0) (9d0d0 c0c0)

Section 3

D.....D



YY

Day of the month (UTC), with 01 indicating the first day, 02 the second day,etc. on which the actual time of observation falls

MM


Month of the year (UTC), i.e. 01=January; 02=February, etc.

J


Units digit of the year (UTC), i.e. 1994 = 4

GGgg

Time of observation, in hours and minutes (UTC)


Qc

Quadrant of the globe.
Code figure Latitude Longitude
1 North East
3 South East
5 South West
7 North West

Note: The choice is left to the observer in the following cases:
When the ship is on the Greenwich meridian or the 180th meridian (LoLoLoLo = 0000 or 1800 respectively):
Qc = 1 or 7 (northern hemisphere) or
Qc = 3 or 5 (southern hemisphere);
When the ship is on the Equator (LaLaLa = 000):
Qc = 1 or 3 (eastern longitude) or
Qc = 5 or 7 (western longitude).

LaLaLaLa

Latitude, in degrees and minutes

LoLoLoLoLo

Longitude, in degrees and minutes

mT
mS
mc

mT Averaging period for sea temperature
mS Averaging period for salinity
mc Averaging period for surface current direction and speed Code figure 0 Spot values 1 Less than 15 minutes 2 From 15 to 45 minutes 3 More than 45 minutes 9 Data not available

ic

Indicator for units of sea-surface current speed Code figure 0 Metres per second 1 Knots 9 No sea-current data available

sn


Sign of the data
  code
  figure
  0 Positive or zero
  1 Negative

TwTwTw


Sea-surface temperature, in tenths of a degree Celsius, its sign being given by sn


S0S0S0S0

Salinity, in hundredths of a part per thousand (practical salinity), at the surface.

d0d0

True direction, in tens of degrees, towards which sea-surface current is moving
  Code
  figure
  00 Calm
  01 5-14
  02 15-24
  03 25-34
  
  etc. etc.

  36 355-4 
  99 Variable, or all directions or unknown or waves confused, direction
  indetermininate 

c0c0

Sea-surface current speed, in tenths of a meter per second or tenths of a knot, in units indicated by ic
d0d0c0c0 is encoded 0000 if the current speed is less than 0.05 meter per second (0.1 knot)

D.....D


Ship's call sign consisting of three or more alphanumeric characters