General instruction to metadata and data submission

 To submit data to the SESAME portal, data providers should

1. Apply to the system administrator  for a username and password
2. Supply information regarding your data center
3. Supply information regarding contact person responsible for the data
4. Submit metadata and define measured parameters in the standard terms through the online submission interface
   Metadata which was previously sent in EDMED form is already loaded in the portal and requires only the provider's approval.
5. Submit one dataset for each metadata record.

Each dataset has to be organized in one file with a single SESAME accepted data format. The measured parameters inside the file must be specified using SESAME codes. The dataset file size should be less than 5 MB. Each file can include one or several logical data units. Each logical unit represents data measured by a single set of equipment. Typical logical units of oceanographic data are:

1. Ensemble of oceanographic cast data collected during one cruise by one set of equipment (CTD, Bottles, XBT or Plankton Net…). Each cast can include several parameters. Data observed during one cruse by different kind of equipment should be presented by several datasets. For example: the data of the first SESAME cruise carried out by Israel (SESIL01) will be presented by three separate metadata records corresponding to three separate datasets: SESIL01_CTD for CTD data, SESIL01_BOT for geochemical data and SESIL01_BIO for plankton data.
2.  Time series observed (or generated by model) on a fixed position (typically observations on mooring platforms, coastal stations, bottom placed equipment, etc…). If the dataset is too long then time series can be divided to several datasets (e.g. by years or by decades). One time series can include several parameters measured synchronically.