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Abstract

The open data paradigm spurred the sharing of data through different pathways determining the generation of different versions of the same datasets. This might depend on different factors: the data delivery process, the data center managing the dataset or the marine data infrastructure collating it. A data provider should define a data quality assurance and long term curation strategy along with the data lifecycle, which implies the possibility of reprocessing a dataset according to the latest quality control procedures and standards. To this, it is important to combine data with complete metadata description allowing interoperability, traceability and transparency of the information process. In particular, some key metadata is crucial in climate science because it allows to re-analyze historical data, quantifying and reducing uncertainties of key ocean monitoring indicators such as the Ocean Heat Content. The objective of this work has been to reprocess all the raw data and metadata available from about 3800 XBT (eXpendable BathyThermograph) probes launched in the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian Seas between 1999 and 2019 by applying an improved delay mode and almost completely automatic quality control procedure. The dataset contains the most complete set of metadata collected during the monitoring activity, not available in any previous data version. The data has been encoded and formatted following the latest community standards and FAIR principles with the aim of implementing an operational workflow for the new monitoring activities and the Near Real Time delivery of data through ERDDAP server.