Argos Data Model

Argos GPS Data Model

Last updated January 5, 2010 Bart Heupers - UvAGPS moved to special page

Updated January 22, 2008 Judy Shamoun-Baranes

NOTE: On July 2014 we moved all argos-related tables, views, functions and types to a new schema called argos.

e-ECOLOGY ARGOS TRACKING DATABASE

The tracking database will include data from several species. Some species are trapped and then monitored during the breeding season while others are trapped during the winter season. Information is collected on each tracked bird, including biometric measurements. These measurements may be collected more than once. During the breeding season information is also collected about the gull breeding colony itself, location of nests, state of breeding (number of eggs and juveniles) and then juveniles themselves are marked and measured (although not tracked).

In addition, PTTs are often tested before they are actually placed on the birds. This information is also important during analysis and particularly to establish accuracy of data. This data should also be stored in the database. Therefore it is important that this information is stored properly in the database

Units and descriptions should be filled in for all measurements

One way of looking at this structure is considering 3 categories of tables:

1. lookup tables (information stored once)
2. session tables (stored occasionally)
3. observations – highest frequency of information.

Primary keys are noted by bold italic text. Foreign keys are noted by italic text in the Field column.

Microwave will under no circumstances provide information about their checksum calculations. If feasible, SARA will duplicate the procedure and include a flag representing the microwave filtered data.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION FROM TAGS

DEVICE_INFO

Table including technical information about tag hardware.

Field	Type	Key	Constraints	Comments
ptt_id	int4	PK	NOT NULL	serial number of PTT provided by Argos and used for communication with Argos satellite
serial	int4		NOT NULL	serial number of tag from manufacturer
weight	int4		NOT NULL	Unit = grams
type	text		NOT NULL
manufacturer	text			Device manufacturer
hexadecimal_id	text			Hexadecimal address, unique for each tag
PAN_id	Text			Personal area network ground based tags communicates with
Base_station_id	Int4			base station ground based tag communicates with
Remarks	text

TRACK_SESSION

This table includes information about each measurement session and enables inclusion of data from new species and also from the test phase of different tags

Field	Type	Key	Constraints	Comments
id	int4	PK	NOT NULL	unique ID for each usage of a PTT so test and bird with same ptt_id are two separate IDs/indexes
pttid	int4	FK	NOT NULL	Link to DEVICE_INFO table
ring_number	text	FK		link to individual table – tests do not have a ring_number
start_date	timestamptz			Date/time (Local) when tracking begins
start_latitude	float8		NOT NULL	latitude where tracking begins, unit = dec degress
start_longitude	float8		NOT NULL	longitude where tracking begins, unit = dec degrees
start_altitude	Float8			Unit = m, include when known, important for testing
end_date	timestamptz			End of session if known
time_window	text
time_steps	text
remarks	text
location	geometry			postgreSQL geometry

GPS_TRACKING_DATA

Tracking data from GPS sensors on PTT/GPS tags

Field	Type	Key	Constraints	Comments
ptt_id	int4	PK	NOT NULL
date_time	timestamp	PK	NOT NULL	GMT
latitude	float8			Decimal degrees
longitude	float8			Decimal degrees
speed	float8			m/s
course	float8			degrees
altitude	float8			m
alt_status	text
quality	text			Quality information from sensor
user_QC	text			Data flagged as unacceptable by user
parser_QC	text			Data flagged as unacceptable by Microwave parser
location	geometry			postgreSQL geometry

Note :

The parser_QC value can be 1, 2, 3, 4, 99, or 100. If it is 1 the data is OK. If it is 2 or 3 or 4, some form of error correction has been performed by the Microwave parser. And if it is 100, no error correction was possible. For reliable results it is advised only to use records with parser_QC values of 1.

ARGOS_TRACKING_DATA

Tracking data from Argos sensors

Field	Type	Key	Constraints	Comments
ptt_id	int4	PK	NOT NULL
date_time	timestamp	PK	NOT NULL	GMT
fix	text
latitude1	float8
longitude1	float8
latitude2	float8
longitude2	float8
msgcount	int4
frequency	float8
average_ti	float8
satellite	text
max_str	text
location1	geometry			postgreSQL geometry
location2	geometry			postgreSQL geometry

PTT_ENGINEERING_DATA

Field	Type	Key	Constraints	Comments
ptt_id	int4	PK	NOT NULL
tx_date_time	timestamp	PK	NOT NULL	GMT
satellite_id	text	PK	NOT NULL
ptt_date_time	timestamp			GMT
activity	int4
tx_count	int4
temperature	float8
battery_voltage	float8
gps_fix_time	int4
satellite_count	int4
hours_reset	int4
hours_since_gps_fix	int4
mortality_gt	int4
seasonal_gt	int4
shunt	int4

In addition the views GPS_TRACKING_SESSION, ARGOS_TRACKING_SESSION, PTT_ENGINEERING_SESSION are which adds the correct track_session.id to the GPS_TRACKING_DATA, ARGOS_TRACKING_DATA and PTT_ENGINEERING_DATA table data.

BIOLOGICAL INFORMATION

INDIVIDUAL

Table includes information used to identify an individual

Field	Type	Key	Constraints	Comments
ring_number	text	PK	NOT NULL	metal ring number
Id	int4	PK	NOT NULL	auto-insert, unique ID for each individual organism
NEST_INFO_id	int4	FK		link to NEST_INFO, not all specimens are linked to a nest
nest_certainty	int4			1 = certain, 0 = not completely certain
species_certainty	int4			1 = certain, 0 = not completely certain
ring_number	text		NOT NULL	metal ring number
color_code	text			code for color ring without punctuation
species	text		NOT NULL	Scientific name (at least genus)
sex	text			update if or when known
FATE_CODEE_id	textInt4	FK		Link to FATE_CODE
Remarks	text

FATE_code

Field	Type	Key	Constraints	Comments
Id	Int4	PK		auto-insert
code	int4	PK	NOT NULL
description	text

MEASUREMENT

Metadata Provided by Sovon is needed to describe how these measurements are taken.

Field	Type	Key	Constraints	Comments
id	int4	PK	NOT NULL	auto-insert, unique ID for each observation
ring_number	text	FK		link to individual
catch_datetime	timestamp			Local time
release_datetime	timestamp			Local time
mass	float8			grams
age	text			AD = adult, JUV = juvenile
wing_length	float8
bill_length1	float8
bill_length2	float8
bill_height1	float8
bill_height2	float8
tarsus_length	float8
total_head	float8
observer	text
remarks	text

Catch_datetime & release_datetime

During ringing of juveniles only the date was recorded and not the time. Birds were all released the same day. Ringing and measuring small chicks in the nest took about 2-5 minutes. Colour ringing and sampling of the larger chicks (from 4 July onwards) took about half an hour (rounding up several chicks and banding, sampling and releasing them together). To avoid leaving fields blank, a standard catch time was noted at 12:00 and a release time of 12:15 before July 4 and 12:30 from July 4 and onwards. 'comments by Kees Oosterbeek'

NEST_INFO

Field	Type	Key	Constraints	Comments
id	int4	PK	NOT NULL
Species	text
latitude	float8		NOT NULL	Decimal degrees
longitude	float8		NOT NULL	Decimal degrees
year	Int4			Year of breeding season
"location"	geometry			postgreSQL geometry
Remarks	text

NEST_OBSERVATION

Field	Type	Key	Constraints	'Comments'
id	int4	PK	NOT NULL	Auto-insert, unique ID for each observation
NEST_INFO_id	int4	FK	NOT NULL
date	timestamptz		NOT NULL
number_egg	int4
number_young	int4
pipping	text			Activity in egg (peeping or signs of hatching)
attended	text			Activity on nest
observer	text
remarks	text

Comments:

Graphical Data Model

Argos GPS functions

get_argosgps_track_speed

Compute distance (meters), time-interval, speed (meter/second) and heading (degrees) for a series of subsequent tracking entries with specific device_info_serial. For the first entry in the sequence these values will always be missing because they are computed as the difference between subsequent rows.

Usage examples :

select * from argos.get_argosgps_track_speed(41745, '2008-01-01 00:00:00', '2010-01-01 00:00:00');

select * from argos.get_argosgps_track_speed(41745);

Distances and heading are calculated with spherical correction with the Haversine formula as described here. The heading is the initial heading. Because PostGIS does not calculate the heading we don't use PostGIS here.

get_argosgps_track_distance

Compute distance (meters) for Argos GPS tracks to arbitrary point in lat/long or geometry location

Example usage :

select * from argos.get_argosgps_track_distance(41745, 53.23348333,4.91656)

-- Get distances from nest

select * from argos.get_argosgps_track_distance(41745, (
  select n.location from argos.nest_info n, argos.track_session s, argos.individual i 
    where i.nest_info_id = n.id 
      and i.ring_number = s.ring_number 
      and s.ptt_id = 41745 limit 1 ))

Here the distance is calculated with the PostGIS distance_sphere function which uses spherical correction.

get_argosgps_track_distance_direction

Compute distance (meters) and direction (degrees) for Argos GPS tracks from arbitrary point in lat/long or geometry location

Example usage :

select * from argos.get_argosgps_track_distance_direction(41745, 53.23348333,4.91656)


-- Get distances from nest
create temporary table nest as
(   select  n.latitude, n.longitude from argos.nest_info n, argos.track_session s, argos.individual i 
    where i.nest_info_id = n.id 
      and i.ring_number = s.ring_number 
      and s.ptt_id = 41745 limit 1 );
      
select * from argos.get_argosgps_track_distance_direction(41745, (select latitude from nest), (select longitude from nest));

Distances and direction are calculated with spherical correction with the Haversine formula as described here. The direction is the direction from the given point.