Class to Store Sealevel Data

This class stores sealevel data, e.g. from a tide gauge.

Slots

data

As with all oce objects, the data slot for sealevel objects is a list containing the main data for the object. The key items stored in this slot are time and elevation.

metadata

As with all oce objects, the metadata slot for sealevel objects is a list containing information about the data or about the object itself. An example of the former might be the location at which a sealevel measurement was made, stored in longitude and latitude, and of the latter might be filename, the name of the data source.

processingLog

As with all oce objects, the processingLog slot for sealevel objects is a list with entries describing the creation and evolution of the object. The contents are updated by various oce functions to keep a record of processing steps. Object summaries and processingLogShow() both display the log.

Modifying slot contents

Although the [[<- operator may permit modification of the contents of sealevel objects (see [[<-,sealevel-method), it is better to use oceSetData() and oceSetMetadata(), because those functions save an entry in the processingLog that describes the change.

Retrieving slot contents

The full contents of the data and metadata slots of a sealevel object may be retrieved in the standard R way using slot(). For example slot(o,"data") returns the data slot of an object named o, and similarly slot(o,"metadata") returns the metadata slot.

The slots may also be obtained with the [[,sealevel-method operator, as e.g. o[["data"]] and o[["metadata"]], respectively.

The [[,sealevel-method operator can also be used to retrieve items from within the data and metadata slots. For example, o[["temperature"]] can be used to retrieve temperature from an object containing that quantity. The rule is that a named quantity is sought first within the object's metadata slot, with the data slot being checked only if metadata does not contain the item. This [[ method can also be used to get certain derived quantities, if the object contains sufficient information to calculate them. For example, an object that holds (practical) salinity, temperature and pressure, along with longitude and latitude, has sufficient information to compute Absolute Salinity, and so o[["SA"]] will yield the calculated Absolute Salinity.

It is also possible to find items more directly, using oceGetData() and oceGetMetadata(), but neither of these functions can retrieve derived items.

See also

Other classes provided by oce: adp-class, adv-class, argo-class, bremen-class, cm-class, coastline-class, ctd-class, lisst-class, lobo-class, met-class, oce-class, odf-class, rsk-class, section-class, topo-class, windrose-class, xbt-class

Other things related to sealevel data: [[,sealevel-method, [[<-,sealevel-method, as.sealevel(), plot,sealevel-method, read.sealevel(), sealevel, sealevelTuktoyaktuk, subset,sealevel-method, summary,sealevel-method

Author

Dan Kelley