EPOCS: Moored Current Meter Data from the South Pacific Ocean (1981-1983)

Current meter data were collected from November 21, 1981 to November 20, 1983 in the South Pacific Ocean as part of the Equatorial Pacific Ocean Climate Studies (EPOCS) project. The data, processed to the NODC F015 standard, likely contain time series of east-west (u) and north-south (v) current vector components at 10-15 minute intervals, along with potential measurements of water temperature, pressure, and salinity. This dataset supports the study of ocean circulation and climate variability in the equatorial Pacific region.

Use Cases

• Analyzing temporal variability of ocean currents based on the 10-15 minute interval time series.
• Studying vertical current structure using reported sensor depth and bottom depth for each mooring station.
• Investigating relationships between currents and water properties using potential concurrent measurements of temperature and salinity.
• Validating or forcing regional ocean circulation models with in-situ Eulerian current measurements.

Strengths

• Provides a continuous two-year time series (1981-11-21 to 1983-11-20) from a specific climate study project.
• Data are standardized to a well-documented NODC format (F015), ensuring consistent structure.
• Contains detailed metadata per station including position, bottom depth, and sensor depth.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, specific column names, and license are unknown across all sources.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (1983 vs. 2026) create uncertainty about data currency and potential reprocessing.
• The dataset's spatial coverage is described only broadly as the South Pacific Ocean without specific coordinates.

Provenance

Source

Oregon State University; processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC).

Collection Method

Data collected using moored current meter casts (Eulerian method).

Time Range

1981-11-21 to 1983-11-20

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:08:51.245944

Geography

South Pacific Ocean