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The R2R website offers several ways to access its data stores. Clicking the Browse Vessels button in the upper navigation bar takes you to the cruise catalog. From there, selecting a vessel provides a paginated list of all associated cruises, ordered by date. Selecting a specific cruise will take you to its dedicated Cruise Page.
If you already know the specific cruise ID, you can enter it into the "Search cruise" input in the upper-left sidebar. This shortcut takes you directly to that cruise's page, bypassing the catalog interface entirely. CruiseID's are not case sensitive but do require the correct dash (-) or leg number to find. Example: AR87b vs AR87-b.
The Cruise Page organizes data into filesets. While a fileset generally maps to a single device, one device may correspond to multiple filesets if it generates different data types. Filesets are grouped into two categories:
To initiate a direct download for a fileset, click the icon. To inspect the contents of a fileset—including filenames, byte counts, and MD5 hash values—click the button.
If a icon appears instead of a download link, the Chief Scientist has not yet authorized the data for public release. These files will remain unavailable until the formal release date.
The "Additional Cruise Information" section provides deeper context for the expedition. Here, the File Manifest link takes you to a comprehensive list of all files included in the original data package sent to R2R, which serves as the source for our underway fileset downloads.
For published cruises, a "Request Distro Files" button will be visible. This tool allows you to request any subset of files from the entire data package (the "distro"). Simply select your desired files from the directory tree, provide your contact information, and click "Submit." R2R will follow up via email with instructions on how to access the requested data.
The Search page allows you to discover data by filtering through filesets across the entire repository. You can search across multiple cruises using parameters such as device type, vessel name, and operating institution.
If you are unsure of a specific device name, the Data Types & Products page lists and describes all device types served by R2R. You can also use the "Search device" and "Search keyword" shortcuts in the left sidebar to jump straight to the Search page.
R2R performs Quality Assurance (QA) to assess data validity. To view these assessments, navigate to the QA Dashboard. You can locate a report for a specific cruise via the "Cruise" field or use the "Vessel" dropdown to compare reports across multiple expeditions.
Within a QA report, the "Docs & Plots" button provides access to full documentation. The dashboard uses a colored lamp system (indicated with 


icons) to visualize quality criteria at a glance; detailed information on these criteria is available within the Quality Assessment Report document.
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