The 2005 data pilot project was a partnership between the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the SAMOS Data Assembly Center (DAC) at the Florida State University. Goals of the pilot project included:

• Developing a data protocol for daily transmission of SAMOS observations from a vessel at sea to the DAC.
  • File transmission via email attachments
  • Files contain all 1-min. averages sampled during one day at sea
  • Using SAMOS version 1 data exchange format
  • Daily transmission to occur just past 0000 UTC
  • Initial vessels: R/V Knorr and R/V Atlantis
• Designing and testing metadata forms and protocols
• Beginning routine daily transmission of SAMOS observations
• Implementing routine data quality evaluation of SAMOS observations prior to public distribution

The ship operations groups at WHOI are developed shipboard scripts to format the SAMOS observations and email these data to the DAC. The DAC is developed near-real time data ingestion, the metadata database, scientific data quality evaluation, and near-real time data distribution systems. The pilot project has concluded and two WHOI vessels continue to provide data on a daily basis. The DAC is actively recruiting additional vessels to participate in SAMOS.