High-Resolution CTD Profiles from Southeast Alaska Coastal Waters

NOAA Ship MURRE II collected nearly continuous oceanographic profiles in the coastal waters of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia. The dataset, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the F022 format, covers a 9-month period from June 1975 to March 1976. It provides high-resolution measurements of temperature, salinity, and density at depth intervals as fine as 1 meter.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical stratification of water temperature and salinity in coastal fjords.
• Calculating historical density (sigma-t) profiles to study water mass distribution.
• Correlating oceanographic conditions from specific stations with meteorological data recorded during casts.
• Examining temporal changes in coastal hydrography over the 1975-1976 period.

Strengths

• Data is processed to the NODC's standardized High-Resolution CTD/STD (F022) format, ensuring consistency.
• Profiles offer high vertical resolution, with measurements reported at intervals as fine as 1 meter.
• The dataset includes ancillary station data such as position, date, time, and possible surface conditions.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as exact row count, column names, and license are not provided by any source.
• The temporal coverage is limited to a single 9-month cruise from 1975-1976.
• One platform lists a last updated date of 2026, which conflicts with the 1976 data collection end date, suggesting a metadata update rather than new data.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), collected via NOAA Ship MURRE II.

Collection Method

Data collected using Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) and Salinity-Temperature-Depth (STD) instruments, processed by NODC.

Time Range

1975-06-20 to 1976-03-29

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:26:26.009249

Geography

Coastal Waters of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia.