XRF Data Access

Accessing Scanning XRF Data

Scanning XRF data that are collected as part of an expedition’s Programmatic Measurements are available in the IODP LORE Application (LIMS Online Report).

Programmatic XRF measurements fall under the same moratorium as shipboard data, so if you are a member of an expedition’s science party, you will need to log-in to the application with your cruise credentials to access the XRF data while it is still under moratorium. After an expedition’s moratorium is lifted, the programmatic XRF measurements are freely available to the community. You do not need to log-in to access the data.

To access the XRF data, under “Select report” on the left side of the screen, select “X-Ray”, then “Shore X-Ray Summary (XRF)”, and then “Standard.”

Under “Hierarchy Search”, select an expedition number. You can get more specific by selecting a Site and Hole. Do not enter a specific core and section, as no data will show up. The most specific you can get is by Site and Hole. Next, click the “View data” button. A report called “XRF Summary” will appear. If nothing appears, there was either no XRF data collected for that particular Expedition/Site/Hole, or the data are under moratorium (in which case, you will need to be logged-in if you should have access). 

Understanding the XRF Summary

Below is an example of an XRF Summary report for Expedition 385, Site U1549A. Every expedition may choose to scan at whatever resolution and parameters best suit their needs, so the XRF Summary reports will look different depending on which expedition’s data you are looking at.

There are columns for File Name, Expedition, Site, Hole, Voltage, Current, Filter, Live Time, Downcore Slit, Crosscore Slit, Scan, and Raw Data.

Clicking on the File Name will allow you to open or save a spreadsheet that contains the data for XRF scans that were done using the conditions described in the other columns for that row.  Downloading the .zip file under Raw Data will save a folder containing the .SPE raw data files along with the model used to process the data.

Let's take a look at the 3 rows for XRF data collected at a voltage of 10 kV.

All three were scanned at a voltage of 10kV, but one of them was scanned with a downcore slit width of 1mm, while the other two were down at 10mm.

Because of this high-resolution scanning, the X-ray tube current and Live Time were also increased, as shown.

For the next two rows of 10kV data, the XRF scanning parameters (voltage, current, filter, live time, and slit sizes) are the same. The only difference is the Scan number, one with a 1 and the other with a 2. If you opened the .csv files for these rows, you will see that they contain duplicate data for some sections. Most sections appear in Scan 1, duplicates appear in Scan 2. In this case, the duplicate scans were done at a higher resolution (20mm) than the original scans (50mm). They are separated out to make it clearer that the sections were scanned twice, instead of integrating everything into one spreadsheet. If only one scan was done for a particular section but at a higher resolution only, it will appear in Scan 1.

Note that the Scan number column was added in 2021, so programmatic measurements that were collected prior to this time may have duplicate sections combined in one csv file.

There are a lot of variables that a user can change, so always look carefully at the settings in the various columns when trying to find the data you are looking for.

Personal XRF measurements that are paid for by an individual user are not accessible in LIMS, unless the user chooses to make them publicly available.

Contact the XRF Lab Manager if you have any questions about accessing XRF data.