Quality Control and Analysis of Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler Data Collected on Offshore Platforms of the Gulf of Mexico

In 2005 MMS announced Notice to Lessees and Operators (NTL) No. 2005-G05 "Deepwater Ocean Current Monitoring on Floating Facilities" that provides for the submittal of oceanographic data and current monitoring information to MMS via a single publicly available Internet site. The GOMR therefore established that all floating mobile offshore drilling units, and production facilities (with certain exceptions) operating or installed in water depths greater than 400 m must continuously monitor and gather ocean current data in a real-time basis from near the ocean surface (~30 m) to ~1000 m using acoustic Doppler current profiles (ADCP) current monitoring or compatible equipment. The data must be recorded at least once every 12 hours and reported to MMS via the Internet. In water depths greater than ~1100 m, additional equipment, preferably an upward-looking ADCP, is to be installed near ~100 m above bottom. Data from this system should record at least once every 20 minutes. Data are to be reported to MMS via the Internet within 30 days of retrieval. The number of sites required to report data are estimated to be in the range of 30-40. Data will be passed through preliminary (Level 1) processing procedures and reported by the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC).