This is just a glossary of various terms that get thrown around DNR (especially DNR-IS) from time to time:

aqlp

Aquatrack Leveling Point ^visual

bat

Battery:The power supply used to run the Data Collection Platform.

DCP

Data Collection Platform: The electronic equipment used to operate, collect, and process all data from the sensors at a particuar site.

bench mark

A fixed physical object or mark used as reference for a horizontal or vertical datum. A tidal bench mark is one near a tide station to which the tidal datums are referred. A primary bench mark is the principal mark of a group of tidal bench marks to which the tidal datums are referred. [1]

bwl

Backup Water Level - Water level measured by a pressure sensor instead of the acoustic sensor that is used for measuring primary water level. Backup water level is also not measured in reference to the station datum.

bpr

Barometric Pressure: The barometer installed at a station used to collect atmospheric pressure data.

cla

Calibration temprature A: A temperature sensor located above the calibration hole in the sounding tube. The Cal temps are used in verifying the difference in tempratures inside the Stilling Well.

clb

Calibration Temprature B: A temperature sensor located below the calibration hole in the sounding tube. The Cal temps are used in verifying the difference in tempratures inside the Stilling Well.

crf

Cumulative Rainfall: Cumulative rainfall.

gchn

GOES Channel: The channel on the Geostationary Orbiting Environmental Satellite (GOES) the DCP uses to transmit all data collected at each station.

gfrq

GOES Frequency: The frequency error of the satellite transmissions received from the DCP.

glen

GOES Length: The length or number of Bytes in the satellite message sent by the DCP.

gmst

gsec

gsig

GOES Signal Strength: The signal strength of the satellite transmission recieved from the DCP.

Stilling Well

A PVP pipe installed at a station used to house the Primary Water Level Sensor. The Stilling Well has a 3-1 reduction orifice located at the bottom of the PVC pipe to dampen wave action.

cube

A low power, PC-104 based system running Linux developed by DNR for controlling various sensors and storing data for transmission back to DNR. The cubes were so named because they are cube shaped (4 inches to a side). Of course, once they get put inside their various enclosures they don't appear like cubes anymore.

dnrpub

A "common" directory where DNR folks can share various data and graphics files and also make them available via the web. In dnrwiki pages, files in the dnrpub can be referred by DNRPub:path/to/file.

dnrwiki

This term still doesn't have a precise definition; sometimes we use it to refer to DNR's official web pages that are maintained and generated as wiki pages; other times we use it to refer to those internally-based wiki pages that we use to collaborate among ourselves (currently these are the DNRNotes pages). Watch this space as more details evolve.

mhhw

Mean Higher High Water - A tidal datum. The higher of the two high water levels in a tidal cycle. [1] ^visual

mhw

Mean High Water - A tidal datum. The lower of the two high water levels in a tidal cycle. [1] ^visual

mllw

Mean Lower Low Water - A tidal datum. The lower of the two low water levels in a tidal cycle. [1] ^visual

mlw

Mean Low Water - A tidal datum. The higher of the two low water levels in a tidal cycle. [1] ^visual

msl

Mean Sea Level - A tidal datum. The arithmetic mean of hourly water level heights observed. [1] ^visual

mtl

Mean Tide Level — A tidal datum. The arithmetic mean of mean high water and mean low water. [1] ^visual

NAVD 88

North American Vertical Datum of 1988 - A geodetic reference for elevations, created by the NGS, the National Geodetic Survey, to replace the NGVD 29. The new datum is based upon the mass or density of the Earth instead of the varying heights of the seas. It was published in 1991 and is adjusted based on field work prior to 1929 as well as surveys as recent as 1988.

NGVD 29

National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 - A geodetic reference for elevations, completed and adjusted in 1929. These elevations were used to define the mean sea level datum. This datum was replaced by NAVD 88.

pbm

Primary Bench Mark - The main bench mark in a group of bench marks. ^visual

pwl

Primary Water Level - A tidal datum. Water level measured by an acoustic sensor. On several of our stations we have more than one water level sensor; the main water level sensor, the one we trust the most, is always the primary water level sensor. more explanation ^visual

station datum

A tidal datum. All water elevations are measured at each station relative to the StationDatum. StationDatum is an arbitrary zero point set low enough at each station such that the water level will never be below this point. The arbitrary number is designed to allow all water level observations to be positive numbers. Each station has its own unique StationDatum because of physical conditions at the station. visual explanation

tide

Tides are defined as the alternating rise and fall of sea level with respect to land, as influenced by the gravitational attraction of the moon and sun. details

tide (water level) gauge

An instrument for measuring the rise and fall of the tide (water level). more explanation visual explanation

water level

The total water level fluctuation which can be described as the combination of the tide and other influences such as wind, shoreline orientation, etc. details

webheader'

the graphical elements that appear at the top of a DNR web page, especially those generated by cgi-scripts. Usually generated by WebHeader.pm in Perl CGI scripts.

webfolder

the graphical elements that appear in DNR web pages that represent a "station's folder" with various sections for overview, datums, bench marks, etc. Usually generated by WebFolder.pm in Perl CGI scripts.

webfooter

the graphical elements that appear at the bottom of DNR web pages. Usually generated by WebFooter.pm in Perl CGI scripts. The WebFooter function also will call the WebFolder function if necessary in order to finish the rendering of a webfolder (i.e., the right and bottom borders of the folder graphic).

wikipub

A "common" directory to hold files that are uploaded via a wiki interface. This is still "experimental" at the moment; if and when it's ever operationalized then the files uploaded through this interface will be available at WikiPub:filename.

Tide and Current Glossary