The AGL buoy. A high frequency view of processes at the air-sea interface

In order to reinforce its contribution to the ocean monitoring, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) deployed in June 2007 an oceanic-meteorological buoy (AGL Buoy, 43°50.67´ N; 003°46.20´ W, and 40 km offshore, www.boyaagl.st.ieo.es/) in the southern Bay of Biscay. The buoy is equipped with a suite of field-proven sensors for the measurement of atmospheric and hydrological parameters at the air-sea interface but also with other more experimental biogeochemical and radiative heat fluxes sensors. The measurements from the first group of sensors only require a validation procedure to obtain high quality in situ data time series. For the second, obtaining a reliable data set from these measurements requires a considerable effort on data analysis and careful calibration. Because the importance to obtain high quality in situ data, especially for high frequency time-series less available nowadays yet, the different validation/calibration procedures developed for the AGL buoy are described in this work.