Definitions

Equipment

The metadata of the UKDMOS catalogue is primarily divided into two levels of information, the ‘monitoring’ or ‘observing’ programme and the ‘monitoring’ or ‘observing’ series.

What is a Monitoring Programme?

A ‘monitoring’ or ‘observing’ programme is defined as a measurement activity that has temporal continuity over fixed spatial co-ordinates. The fixed spatial co-ordinates can range from point monitoring stations to global satellite coverage. Datasets from monitoring programmes include real-time, near real-time and regularly repeated measurements. Examples of a monitoring programme include the ‘NRW Skomer Marine Nature Reserve Monitoring’, ‘Beachwatch Big Weekend Litter Survey’ and the ‘Ellett Line and Extended Ellett Line Oceanographic Section’.

What is a Monitoring Series?

A ‘monitoring’ or ‘observing’ series refers to a particular component of a monitoring programme e.g. a site, station or cruise. So for example each individual beach involved in the Beachwatch Big Weekend Litter Survey is a monitoring series, and under the Ellett Line Oceanographic Section monitoring programme, each station (1G, 2G, 3G onwards) would be a monitoring series.

Every ‘Monitoring Series’ has to belong to a specific ‘Monitoring Programme’.