Update ATN QC protocol documentation

[mmckinzie]

Who is requesting this?

@ioos/marine-life

What is being requested?

Update the language currently describing ATN QC protocols to improve clarity on how QARTOD tests are applied, how data are modified, and how results are used in other ATN data processing steps/pipelines. As well as add a table indicating possible QARTOD test flags/results and their meanings.

https://ioos.github.io/ioos-atn-data/quality-control.html
https://github.com/iwensu0313/ioos-atn-data/blob/bufr_doc/_docs/quality-control.md

What is the requested deadline and why?

2026-07-31

What is the current status quo (i.e., what happens if this does not get done)?

The Marine Life team and the animal telemetry community will not fully understand what the QC protocols are for ATN data.

What indicates this is done (i.e., how do we know this is complete)?

• A pull request to https://github.com/ioos/ioos-atn-data/ with documentation of the process.
• The documentation is published on GitHub at https://github.com/ioos/ioos-atn-data/

Provide a description or any other important information.

No response

[mmckinzie]

Initial thoughts regarding updates as listed in the original issue ticket #14:

• Update the language about the valid range test under both the Quality Control Procedures and Deployment Duration sections; as saying that the valid range test is the only test that truncates the raw data based on provided deployment dates makes it sound like those positions are removed from all subsequent versions of the data. Which of course is not the case, positions are flagged as bad (4) and retained in most of the processed data files (e.g., deployment.csv, NCEI .nc files, OBIS and ERDDAP files), while removed from aniMotum input and output files as well as used to truncate portal visualizations.
• It also does not strictly position on land that may fall outside of the reported deployment window; while this is often the case, it is not always the case.
• Add text describing how test results are used in other ATN applications or data pipelines
• Include a simple table or text about the QARTOD flags themselves and link to the associated manual, so anyone viewing data files will know that 1 = good, 2 = not evaluated, 3 = suspect, 4 = bad/fail and 9 = missing data.

[MathewBiddle]

I moved this to To Do and assigned an end date of the August 31st. Who is the responsible person to make this change? I see both @iwensu0313 and @mmckinzie assigned.

[mmckinzie]

Both of us. I'll suggest edits and text updates, Iwen will modify the document, and then, after another round of review and possibly a few more minor edits, she'll push live.