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Quality Assurance

Verification Process

Category Verification Process Status
Model Specification FVCOM version, CF conventions, required variables Compliant
Temporal Integrity Time steps, chronological order, expected frequency Compliant
Spatial Consistency Coordinate systems, grid consistency Compliant
Metadata Consistency Global attributes across files Compliant
Dataset Structure Dimensions, variables, coordinates Compliant
Completeness Temporal coverage, required variables Compliant

Known Data Gaps

Location Issue
Salish Sea Missing 2015-12-31
Aleutian Islands File MD_AIS_west_hrBathy_0370.nc excluded
Cook Inlet File cki_0366.nc excluded
Piscataqua River File PIR_0368.nc excluded

Temporal Validation

Each location's time series was verified for:

  • Completeness - All expected timesteps present (within known gaps above)
  • Chronological order - Timestamps monotonically increasing
  • Frequency consistency - Uniform hourly or half-hourly intervals
  • No duplicates - Each timestep appears exactly once

Spatial Validation

Grid consistency was verified for:

  • Coordinate range - All coordinates within expected geographic bounds
  • Grid connectivity - Triangular element definitions consistent across timesteps
  • Projection accuracy - UTM-to-WGS84 transformations validated (see Coordinate Systems)

Value Range Checks

Derived variables were checked against physically reasonable bounds:

  • Current speed - Non-negative, within expected range for each location
  • Power density - Non-negative, consistent with cubic relationship to speed
  • Water depth - Positive in non-dry cells, consistent with bathymetry + elevation
  • Tidal range - Positive, within expected range for tidal regime classification