COARE: Moored Current Meter Data from the Pacific Ocean

Moored instruments captured ocean current vectors at 10-15 minute intervals in the Northwest and Southwest Pacific Ocean during the 1992-1993 Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment. Data are formatted to the NODC F015 standard, which includes position, sensor depth, and east-west (u) and north-south (v) current components. Temperature, pressure, and salinity measurements may also be present in the time series records.

Use Cases

• Validating ocean circulation models based on Eulerian current measurements from fixed moorings.
• Analyzing temporal variability of currents and water properties during the COARE field campaign.
• Studying air-sea flux dynamics by correlating current data with atmospheric observations from the same experiment.

Strengths

• Data collection uses a standardized, documented format (NODC F015) for ocean current measurements.
• Covers a specific, scientifically significant 5.5-month field campaign (COARE) with a defined time range.
• Provides high-temporal-resolution measurements, with data points typically reported every 10-15 minutes.

Limitations

• Key metadata is missing: exact row count, file size, column names, and license are not provided by any source.
• Data freshness is ambiguous; sources conflict on last update date (1993 vs. 2026), suggesting potential metadata issues.
• Documentation is external, requiring users to visit a separate NODC archive link for full mooring descriptions.

Provenance

Source

First Institute of Oceanography, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC).

Collection Method

Data collected from moored current meter casts using Eulerian measurement methods.

Time Range

1992-10-01 to 1993-03-15

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:25:30.603968

Geography

Northwest and Southwest Pacific Ocean