Event

The EVENT table includes metadata required to define an event of sampling or measurement. Double click on an event label in 4D will open the event window with all required (relational) fields on a Basics and a Details card. If data are georeferenced, event label and latitude/longitude are mandatory. If data are not georeferenced, the definition of an event is not required. EVENT IMPORT FORM 
 * To add a SINGLE EVENT click on the New button in the Event list window and type in the required information.
 * To add a LIST of EVENTS, use the
 * Fill with event information by using the predefined header (mandatory fields are shown in red ).
 * Export from excel as tab-delimited text-file.
 * Save text-file with UTF-8 encoding.
 * Import via 4D-Menue Import, choose Events. In the Import stations/sites window, fill out the fields accordingly:
 * Project is relational to the PROJECT tabel; choose not_given if the project is not relevant
 * If a list of events need to be corrected, the list may be imported again. In this case check Overwrite existing events.
 * Event table fields are described below; recommendations on how to fill out the columns in the import form are given in italic.
 * If an event has NO position (e.g. name of an experiment), Latitude and Longitude can be import with values -999.999; consequently the position will not appear in the metaheader.
 * If NO EVENT is required, use the virtual event not_given in the data import file. In this case, the event line will not appear in the metaheader.

Basics tab

 * Event Label is the name of a sampling/measuring event (synonymes site, station). The label should not contain blanks and must be unique throughout the event table. This can be ensured by combining the station numbers with the campaign label, using an underline to join (e.g. Taymyr97_3). Devices or projects should not be replicated in the label (avoid redundancies).
 * Optional label may be used, if the same station has different labels (see Event label problem)
 * Device type is used to group devices and set automaticaly when adding the Device
 * Device tool, gear or method used to take a sample or to measure something; use not_given if not applicable, use Abbreviation or full name for import (column headed 'Device' in event import form). Device is relational to the FEATURE table, ontology Devices, PANGAEA. Use devices which have an abbreviation, e.g., Multicorer MUC. Do not use devices without abbreviations, these are device types!
 * Latitude is mandatory for georeferenced data and given in decimal degree (positive for North, negative for South)
 * Longitude dito (positive for East, negative for West)
 * Elevation [m] is given relative to sea level: positive above sea level, negative below sea level (=water depth).
 * Date/Time of event execution must be given in ISO-format: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss; date only is allowed.
 * in case an event is a profile with start and an end point, all fields are repeated to describe the second point with a '2' added to the corresponding field name.
 * Project, Campaign are relational to the corresponding tables.
 * Location is relational to the FEATURE table, ontology Locations, PANGAEA.
 * Comment may be used to add free text which should be closely event specific (no limit of characters). If an invalid position is imported, the text Unknown event! may be added (keep in mind, that georeferenced data with missing position is useless).
 * Keywords is relational to the thesaurus and can used to define e.g. specific groups of event.
 * URI link to a more detailed description of an event, e.g. on a external web page or a document.

Details tab

 * Device is redundant with the Basic tab
 * Additional attributes give the possibility to add more sampling information. All fields are free text fields and must be given with the unit:
 * Penetration maximum coring depth, should be given in meter.
 * Recovery gives the length of the core, should be given in meter
 * Lake water depth gives the water depth at sampling position in lakes, should be given in meter
 * Mesh size gives the mesh size of net devices

Event label problem: there is a great risk of confusion with event labels (also with campaign labels). Please consider that clarity for the relation between event and data is paramount for the curator and the import procedure. The event labels published in the expedition report should be exactly those that appear in a publication and in the data sets provided for import (first column). In some cases, an additional labeling of events can not be avoided; in this case please use the field Optional label in the event table to add a second label. In the final data set, it will appear behind the event label in parenthesis (example with 3 labels ).

Three different systems exist for labeling events during expeditions:
 * 1) ship related (e.g. Vema, Polarstern)
 * 2) institution related (e.g. GIK..., Geob...)
 * 3) free format

As a well defined example, the station labeling system of Polarstern is described as:
 * Station labels start with PS as a reference to the ship.
 * Each expedition is numbered starting with 1 and written with a leading zero; e.g. PS07 is the seventh expedition.
 * Station numbers start with 1 on each new expedition and are numbered throughout, independent from the legs, leading zeros to fill a three digit number; e.g. PS07/025 is the 25th station during the 7th expedition.
 * During a station, several devices may be used (events), those are identified by an increasing number added with a hyphen, e.g. a complete event label would be PS07/025-3 labeling the third device on the 25th station during the 7th expedition.
 * It is a Pangaea convention that measurements along the track are related to an event label consisting of the leg number and the extension *-track, e.g. PS07/1-track.