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.01a files are are ASL's internal binary raw format. These files are simply the raw data from the instrument. Our normal raw log files record all communication and data with the device in an ASCII hex format. This data product is produced from those files by stripping out the ONC timestamps, the driver commands and device ASCII responses, extracting the ASL data and re-packaging it and converting to the binary .01a format. There are no data product options offered. Live data is available (the log files do not need to be archived for this data product to be available). These files are readable by ASL's software (AZFPLink and their own MATLAB code) and a growing number of 3rd party software and code. See ASL's processing page https://aslenv.com/azfp-processing.html for more information. A particular target for the .01a data product is the bioacoustic viewing and analysis software EchoView, version 7.1 and later will open .01a files. The file formats are as specified in the ASL user manuals that come with the ASL software, see the documentation links at the top of this page. The format produced is the FLASH data variant, emulating data collected in autonomous mode. Files are broken on the hour, every hour, with additional file breaks on driver restarts and configuration changes.
Plots: PNG and PDF
There are two formats of plots available: PNG or PDF. A PDF plot file can contain multiple plots as separate pages, and the graphics are vector images, which are better for printing or viewing at high resolution. The PNG format is a single plot in a raster image which is good for quick viewing and sharing. The data and appearance of the two plot formats are the same. These plots are also known as echograms, they plot echo intensity (backscatter) vs time and depth, and are basically what you would see as a sonar operator.
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