XBT Data Format Document

                              October 24, 1991


    XBT data are distributed in ASCII  format.  A summary of profiles 
taken on a cruise are listed in the hot#xbt.hdr (where # is the cruise
number) file.  The first line specifies the cruise number.  The second
line labels the columns.  The remaining records contain information on
each profile.

    Column   Format    Item
     1- 3      i3      XBT #
     4- 7      i4      Day of the month
     8-11      a4      Month
    12-14      i3      Year
    15-18      i4      Time (hour)
    20-21      i2      Time (minute)
    23-24      i2      Time (second)
    25-31     f6.2     Latitude
    32-32      a1      N/S (North/South)
    33-40     f7.2     Longitude
    41-41      a1      E/W (East/West)
    42-46      a5      Probe type
    47-         a      Comments
    FORTRAN FORMAT(i3,i4,a4,i3,i4,1x,i2,1x,i2,f6.2,a1,f7.2,a1,a5,a)
    C FORMAT      "%d %d %c4 %d %d %c %i2 %c %d %6.2f %c %7.2f %c %5s %s"
   

    Data for each profile are stored in a separate file.  A file's name
 can be determined by the concatenation of 1 character version indicator 
(usually 'a'), 1 digit probe type, profile number, and a file extension of
dt2.  For example, HOT-4, drop 10, probe type T-7, would be found in
a710.dt2.

    The first nine records of a XBT file contain header information:

    Record  Contains                          Description
       1:   Ship: ___________                 Ship name
       2:   Cruise: HOT-__                    Hot cruise number
       3:   XBT #: _                          Drop number
       4:   Date: __ ___ __  Time: __:__:__ Z Day, month, year, hh:mm:ss
       5:   Probe T-_                         Probe type
       6:   Latitude:   __ __._ _             Degrees, minutes, N or S
       7:   Longitude: ___ __._ _             Degrees, minutes, E or W
       8:   Depth  Temperature                Labels for data columns
       9:     m       ITS-90                  Unit header for data columns.


    The remaining records contain XBT data:
    Data Record Format:

    Column   Format    Item
     1- 6     f6.2     Depth (Meters)
     7-17     f6.3     Temperature (Degrees Celsius,
                       International Temperature Scale of 1990)
    FORTRAN FORMAT(f6.2, f11.3)
    C FORMAT      "%f %f"