NARWC columns recognised by narwcr

The subset of the NARWC variable list (handbook Table 1) that this package reads, together with the alternative spellings accepted on input.

Usage

narwc_schema()

Value

A named list with elements required, optional, and aliases.

Details

required names the columns without which no segmentation is possible. optional names columns that are carried through and used when present. aliases maps input column names onto the internal name.

Coordinate naming

The handbook's canonical event-position columns are LAT_DD and LONG_DD (8.A.18, 8.A.22). Data extracts distributed by the NARWC database manager, and some upstream processing pipelines, instead use LATITUDE and LONGITUDE. This package standardises internally on LATITUDE/LONGITUDE and accepts either spelling on input. S_LAT/S_LONG (8.A.33, 8.A.34) are the exact sighting position and are kept distinct from the event position.

Version 8 additions

ANGLEL and ANGLER are declination angles to a sighting, added in Version 8 of the handbook. The New England Aquarium survey team stopped recording STRIP in 2022 and switched to these, which give a more precise right-angle distance and are less sensitive to changes in survey altitude (8.A.31). They are carried through as optional columns; converting them to perpendicular distance belongs with the detection-function work, which is out of scope for this version.

References

Kenney, R.D. (2023) The North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium Database: A Guide for Users and Contributors, Version 8, Table 1. NARWC Reference Document 2023-01.

Examples

narwc_schema()$required
#> [1] "FILEID"    "EVENTNO"   "YEAR"      "MONTH"     "DAY"       "TIME"     
#> [7] "LATITUDE"  "LONGITUDE" "LEGTYPE"