The Glider Research Group works to understand a diverse range of oceanographic processes, from hypoxia on the US West Coast to submesoscale eddy dynamics in the Western Pacific. We use gliders and other oceanographic tools including moorings, profilers, drifters, and bow chains. We write open-source code to prepare and analyse oceanographic data, and for decision making when in the field. We aim to produce standardized, quality-controlled datasets ready for scientific analysis and sharing.

We translate Slocum glider data from a series of unrefined binary files into a scientifically useful product.

• dbd2netcdf converts the Slocum binary data format (tbd, dbd, ... etc) into a time series in netCDF format. It can be used on both the decimated real-time and post-recovery data. Written in C by Pat Welch, it is extremely fast and serves the entrypoint for most subsequent processing steps.
• q2netcdf converts MicroRider q-files into a netCDF format. The q file is a reduced data format transmitted over iridium. The full microstructure data contained in p files are processed using a different tool described in the microstructure section below.

• glide parses the output of dbd2netcdf to produce higher level products, including gliderdac-ready files, and depth-binned output.

• RecoverBy estimates the battery life remaining to help with recovery decisions.

We use Rockland Scientific Instruments (RSI) VMP250 and MicroRider instruments.

• perturb is a parallelized MATLAB package built on top of the RSI's ODAS microstructure processing toolbox. It takes in microstructure p files, as well as ancillery data (GPS fixes), and produces complete binned datasets as well as numerous intermediate data products. It has features for assessing data quality and detecting bottom impacts.

Group operations rely on a suite of virtual machines, usually running Ubuntu Server LTS.

• gliderfs is the file server. It is for managing data pipelines.