M5 associates a current timestamp for each data message written to an interrogation file which is obtained from the computer’s clock. Interrogation sites spanning the Columbia River Basin can have their computer clocks set to various local time zones and may also support daylight saving time adjustments. To accommodate for these variances, the timestamp M5 associates with data has a date-time offset value along with the date and time obtained from the computer system. The date-time offset value of a timestamp in a data file allows PTAGIS to convert timestamps associated with data to Pacific Standard Time (PST), which all data in PTAGIS is standardized to and reported as. For more information, refer to the Timestamp topic in the PTAGIS Data Specifications.

 

We recommend configuring a synchronization strategy for the computer’s system clock running M5 Monitor Service in the field. System clocks can drift over long periods of operation and the accuracy of the computer’s system clock will determine the accuracy of the data collected by M5. In turn, M5 can be configured to synchronize transceiver clocks with the system clock, which we recommend if transceiver memory will be used as a backup data source.

The Data Viewer in M5 Control Panel displays timestamps rounded to the second. These timestamps are retrieved from the local computer system on which the connected M5 Monitor Service is operating. The local time can be different between a computer running M5 Control Panel and a remotely connected computer running M5 Monitor Service, and still be accurate. Timestamps associated with data written to an interrogation file will include the date time offset and fraction of seconds of when the data event occurred. For example, a timestamp of 04/20/2022 06:18:25 displayed in the Data Viewer could be written to a file as 2022-04-20T06:18:24.7233656-07:00 and then reported from PTAGIS as 04/20/2022 05:18:25 PST.

NOTE: the fraction of seconds associated with timestamps from most system clocks will not be accurate. If required, systems can be configured to maintain 1 millisecond accuracy or better with respect to UTC.