Maritime data standardization in the Archimede Project

The concept of data standardization is explored with respect to the development of a highly heterogeneous meteo-marine archive, named Archimede. Meteo- oceanographic data collected from different instrumental platforms, spanning several decades, and obtained by many different subjects are found in the archive. Data standardization is introduced as Standardization = Metadata + Documentation + data Quality Control. The terms of the conceptual scheme are explained in different contexts and their relative importance is stressed. The operational use of the scheme is then dealt with to show how it can be exploited by scientists and qualified operators in the marine field for best use of Archimede data. Given the extensive coverage of contributions present in literature, the effectiveness of authoritative manuals and sets of recommendations freely and easily available on Internet, hardly anyone would be tempted to try and provide even a reasonably short review on the subject. Indeed, this contribution should be by no means considered as an attempt to give a possible set of rules about the treatment of marine data, nor is it intended to give any original ideas on a subject that has grown so much; encompossing so many different kinds of expertise. Such an exercise will stand and remain quite far from our scope. The aim of the present contribution is merely to describe and discuss the set of practical methods that will be implemented to fulfill the various "best practice" recommendations for managing a highly heterogeneous archive of meteo-marine data, and, not secondarily, to try to build up a sort of common language to bridge the gap between different communities of users: oceanographers, coastal engineers and climatologists. We hope that such a common understanding will enhance the chances of a better implementation and development of the Archimede archive and might direct its users towards the best use of the available data. As it will soon become apparent, a decadal experience in dealing with the management and archiving of meteo-oceanographic data has been fundamental in directing the course of our reasoning about the problems involved with the use (and misuse) of marine and meteorological measurements. Most of the examples and the concepts have been taken from our direct experience and some other simply by general common sense. The logical path we will try to follow, stems from the need of using a common language for the term standardization of a relatively long series of data of very different nature, taking into account the evolution in time of the measurement methods, the problems related to the real-time operational networks of the instruments, and last but not least the issues related to the