Last update 19 October 2000

                           ACCLAIM DATA FORMAT
                           ===================

An ACCLAIM data file is a formatted ASCII file in two parts. The first
part consists of 20 lines of text which may have been used to record
details either of the data or the data processing. In FORTRAN these
lines can be read or written as simple character strings.

The second part consists of the data records themselves in format

                     I6,I2,I5,I4,F7.3,6F8.2

It can be seen that there are 11 columns or 'channels' in these records
which are filled as follows:

Channel 1 = a counter 1 to Number-of-Records-in-Dataset. Most ACCLAIM
            data files are continuous (i.e. no gaps), no matter what
            the temporal sampling. This is a condition of the data
            processing.

Channel 2 = bad or missing data flag. If the flag is 0, then the data in
            channels 6-10 are defined to be good. If the flag is 1, the
            record should be treated as bad or missing data.

Channel 3 = year (e.g. 1995). 

Channel 4 = day in year (i.e. 1 - 365 or 366).

Channel 5 = hours in day. All ACCLAIM files use GMT (UT).

Channels 6-11 = data. These will often be sea level values from a
            tide gauge. However, they could just as easily be air
            pressures or temperatures or perhaps current meter values.


                            TASK-2000 FORMAT
                            ================

TASK-2000 format is the same as the above except that there are 10
columns in the file, rather than 11.


=========================================================================

                           DAILY VALUES OF SEA LEVEL
                           =========================

The 'phase2' directory also contains files of daily mean values of sea
level in format

                              I6,3I4,F10.3

being year (e.g. 1995), day in year, month, day in month, and filtered
daily mean value (cm). The filter used is the Doodson X0 filter centred
on noon GMT (UT).

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