WECOMA Cruise CTD Profiles: North Pacific Ocean, 1988

Coastal waters of Washington and Oregon contain high-resolution oceanographic profiles from the R/V WECOMA cruise between June 19 and August 5, 1988. The data, processed to the NODC F022 standard, likely contains nearly continuous vertical measurements of temperature, salinity, and density, with possible dissolved oxygen or transmissivity readings. Each station includes cruise metadata, position, date, time, and may include concurrent meteorological and sea surface conditions.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical water column structure based on temperature and salinity profiles.
• Studying coastal ocean dynamics and upwelling events using time-series station data.
• Validating regional ocean models with historical, high-resolution CTD measurements.
• Investigating relationships between surface meteorological conditions and subsurface ocean properties.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a recognized standard format (NODC High-Resolution CTD/STD F022).
• Provides high-resolution vertical profiles, potentially at depth intervals as fine as 1 meter.
• Includes comprehensive station metadata such as position, date, time, and cruise information.

Limitations

• Column names and exact row counts are not provided in the available metadata.
• The dataset's most recent update date (2026-03-05) conflicts with the data's temporal coverage ending in 1988, suggesting metadata management rather than data revision.
• Specific license, author, and precise data size information are unavailable.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via CTD/STD instruments deployed from the R/V WECOMA and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1988-06-19 to 1988-08-05

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:37:01.979456 (metadata update); data from 1988.

Geography

North Pacific Ocean, specifically the Coastal Waters of Washington/Oregon