WECOMA Cruise: High-Resolution Ocean CTD/STD Profiles

High-resolution CTD/STD data from the R/V WECOMA cruise in the North Pacific Ocean provides nearly continuous vertical profiles of ocean properties. The data, processed to the NODC F022 standard, likely contains temperature, salinity, density, and possibly dissolved oxygen or transmissivity at depth intervals as fine as one meter. Cruise information, station positions, and environmental conditions at the time of each cast are also reported.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical water column structure based on temperature and salinity profiles.
• Studying coastal upwelling dynamics in the Washington/Oregon region using time-series station data.
• Calibrating regional ocean models with high-resolution in-situ measurements of conductivity and depth.
• Investigating relationships between physical parameters (density, sigma-t) and biogeochemical indicators like dissolved oxygen.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a documented, standard format (NODC High-Resolution CTD/STD F022).
• Profiles are high-resolution, with data potentially reported at depth intervals as fine as 1 meter.
• Includes ancillary station metadata such as position, time, and environmental conditions during the cast.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing or conflicting: row count, file size, specific column names, and license are unknown.
• The dataset's most recent update date (2026-03-05) conflicts with the collection end date (1981-05-29), suggesting metadata management issues.
• Documentation is inferred from format description; original data documentation quality is unclear.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NOAA_NCEI), originally from R/V WECOMA cruise.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

1981-05-17 to 1981-05-29

Freshness

Last updated metadata: 2026-03-05 22:34:44.893682 (DataGov).

Geography

Coastal Waters of Washington/Oregon, North Pacific Ocean.