VEMCO Raw File

VEMCO Acoustic Receivers generate VRL files, which contain both metadata about deployment(s) and tag detection records.

Stations

VRL files are assigned a station name and latitude and longitude coordinates. Stations at the same location are numbered incrementally by deployment.

In most cases, a VRL file corresponds to a deployment at a single station. However, some files contain detections from two stations - these usually arise when a device is recovered from one station, cleaned, and deployed at a new station, without being returned to ONC. In these cases, we will use the first station name and number. Users should check the sites covered by the date range of the file, to determine whether it encompasses multiple stations.

Ocean Tracking Network portal

All uncorrected VRL files are also provided to Ocean Tracking Network (OTN), who also make the data available. OTN provide metrics on deployments at each station, and add links to projects from which tags were detected.

The Ocean Networks Canada VEMCO stations are found on these project pages:

• Buoys of Opportunity - ONC https://members.oceantrack.org/project?ccode=NEP.BOOONC

  • BCH

  • JFCN
  • JF2C
  • AS04
  • MAC
  • BNDYP

• Pirenne Cabled Arrays https://members.oceantrack.org/project?ccode=PCA

  • Cambridge Bay
• VENUS Node https://members.oceantrack.org/project?ccode=NEP.VIP

  • VIP001 (Saanich Inlet)

Oceans 3.0 API filter: dataProductCode=VRF

Revision History

1. Date: Beta product released
2. Date: Second release (beta designation removed)

Data Product Options

There are no options for this data product.

Formats

VRL files are available in VRL and CSV formats.

VRL

VRL files are a proprietary VEMCO file format, readable by VEMCO VUE software. VUE can be used to:

• view the metadata for the VRL file (under Tools > VRL File Inspector)
• import the VRL into a database
• correct the timestamps for tag detections based on clock drift during deployment
• convert/export the tag detections as a CSV file (either using the GUI or on the command-line)

Examples:

VRL file: VR2W_128352_20180703_1.vrl

VRL Metadata:

VR2W_128352_20180703_1.vrl
--------------------------
Original File Name :             VR2W_128352_20180703_1.vrl
Source Plug-in :                 VR2W (3.2)
Output Plug-in :                 ULF (1.1)
Receiver Model :                 VR2W (0202)
Serial Number :                  128352
Version :                        FW: 3.0.5, BL: 3.0.2, HW: 5
Receiver Time @ Init :           2017-04-07 12:41:58 UTC
Receiver Time @ Log Start :      2017-04-07 12:41:58 UTC
Receiver Time @ Log End :        Unknown
Receiver Time @ Log Upload :     2018-07-03 20:12:28 UTC
PC Time @ Init :                 2017-04-07 12:41:58 UTC
PC Time @ Log Upload :           2018-07-03 20:23:55 UTC
Decoding Map :                   MAP-113
Blanking Interval :              260 ms

Oceans 3.0 API filter: extension=vrl

CSV

CSV files are generated from VRL files using VEMCO VUE software. They contain only the tag detections as three comma-separated values, eg.

2017-04-26 05:00:19,VR2W-128352,A69-1601-49429
2017-04-26 05:01:52,VR2W-128352,A69-1601-49429
2017-04-26 05:03:23,VR2W-128352,A69-1601-49429
2017-04-26 05:06:18,VR2W-128352,A69-1601-49429
2017-04-26 05:07:36,VR2W-128352,A69-1601-49429
2017-04-26 05:08:38,VR2W-128352,A69-1601-49429
2017-04-26 05:10:09,VR2W-128352,A69-1601-49429
2017-04-26 05:11:37,VR2W-128352,A69-1601-49429
2017-04-26 05:20:33,VR2W-128352,A69-1601-49429
2017-05-17 11:15:28,VR2W-128352,A69-1601-49394
2017-05-17 11:16:37,VR2W-128352,A69-1601-49394
2017-05-17 11:19:20,VR2W-128352,A69-1601-49394
...

Where:

• column 1=timestamp
• column 2=receiver model (VR2W) and serial number (128352)
• column 3=tag detection
  • A69-1601 = code space
  • 49429 = unique ID

Some tags generate additional columns, eg.

2018-06-05 22:02:05,VR2W-112403,A69-9006-3082,,,104,ADC
2018-06-05 22:05:15,VR2W-112403,A69-9006-3082,,,103,ADC
2018-06-05 22:06:04,VR2W-112403,A69-9006-3082,,,102,ADC
2018-06-05 22:07:04,VR2W-112403,A69-9006-3082,,,103,ADC
2018-06-05 22:08:31,VR2W-112403,A69-9006-3082,,,103,ADC
2018-06-05 22:10:52,VR2W-112403,A69-9006-3082,,,104,ADC
2018-06-05 22:15:04,VR2W-112403,A69-9006-3082,,,100,ADC
...

Where the final two columns are:

• value in Analog to Digital Converter Units
• Analog to Digital Converter indicator

See the VUE Software Manual for more information.

Examples:

CSV file: VR2W_128352_20191023_1.csv

Oceans 3.0 API filter: extension=csv

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