Standardized Data from the Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data Project from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research

The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) is a Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) project led jointly by the Expert Groups on Birds and Marine Mammals and Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics, and endorsed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. The RAATD project team consolidated tracking data for multiple species of Antarctic meso- and top-predators to identify Areas of Ecological Significance.  These datasets constitute the compiled tracking data from a large number of research groups that have worked in the Antarctic since the 1990s.
This metadata record pertains to the "standardized" version of the data files. These files contain position estimates as provided by the original data collectors (generally, raw Argos or GPS locations, or estimated GLS locations). Original data files have been converted to a common format and quality-checking applied, but have not been further filtered or interpolated.
Periods at the start or end of deployments were identified and discarded if there was evidence that location data during these periods did not represent the animals' at-sea movement. For example, tags may have been turned on early (thereby recording locations prior to their deployment on animals) or animals may have remained at the deployment site, e.g. the breeding colony, for an extended period at the start or end of the tag deployment. Some tracks also showed a marked deterioration in the frequency and quality (for PTTs) of location estimates near the end of a track. Such locations were visually identified based on maps of each track in conjunction with plots of location distance from deployment site against time. This information is captured in the location_to_keep column appended to each species’ data file (1 = keep, 0 = discard). The code used to trim the tracks can be found in the https://github.com/SCAR/RAATD repository.
This data set comprises one metadata csv file that describes all deployments, along with data csv files (17 files, one per species) containing the position data. For details of the file formats, consult the data paper.
The data are also available in a filtered version (see https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/SCAR_EGBAMM_RAATD_2018) that have been processed using a state-space model in order to estimate locations at regular time intervals.

Tags: AMD, AMD/AU, AREAS OF ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE, ARGOS > ARGOS Data Collection and Position Location System, BIOTELEMETRY, CEOS, CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA > MAWSON RESEARCH STATION, CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA > ROSS ISLAND, CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA > SCULLIN MONOLITH, CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA > SVARTHAMAREN, CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA > TERRE ADELIE, CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA > VESTFOLD HILLS, EARTH SCIENCE > AGRICULTURE > ANIMAL SCIENCE > ANIMAL ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR, EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > BIRDS > ALBATROSSES/PETRELS AND AL, EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > BIRDS > PENGUINS, EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > MAMMALS > CARNIVORES > SEALS/SEA L, EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > MAMMALS > CETACEANS > BALEEN WHALE, ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS, GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR, GLOBAL LOCATION SENSOR, GPS > Global Positioning System Satellites, HABITAT USE, HOT SPOTS, OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > BOUVET ISLAND, OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > FALKLAND ISLANDS, OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > SOUTH GEORGIA ISLAND, OCEAN > INDIAN OCEAN > CROZET ISLANDS, OCEAN > INDIAN OCEAN > KERGUELEN ISLANDS, OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > BECHERVAISE ISLAND, OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > CAMPBELL ISLAND, OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > COULMAN ISLAND, OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > DRESCHER INLET, OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > FILCHNER TROUGH, OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > HEARD AND MCDONALD ISLANDS, OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > HUKURO COVE, OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > ISLAS MALVINAS, OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > MACQUARIE ISLAND, OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > MCMURDO SOUND, OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > PETREL ISLAND, OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > PRINCE EDWARD ISLANDS, OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > SIGNY ISLAND, OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > SOUTH SHETLAND ISLANDS, OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > UFS ISLAND, PLATFORM TERMINAL TRANSMITTERS, SATELLITES, SEALS, TRACKING
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network