CORRECTING FALSE THERMISTOR STRING DATA

In order to monitor the temperature variability over the total water c olumn in a stratified shallow sea, a thermistor string was suspended f rom a moored loosely tethered surface buoy. Some of the temperature da ta manifested strong first tidal harmonic variability and unrealistic thermocline deepening. It is shown that the string lifted under the ac tion of horizontal buoy displacement. Although the data may be correct ed by using additional pressure or tilt sensors, a method is given to detect and correct them using current data, some simple arguments for buoy displacement under drag force and cross-spectral information from the first harmonic tidal band. The method proves adequate, as has bee n verified using temperature data measured at a nearby sub-surface moo ring and some CTD information. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd .