New York Bight Coastal Current Meter Measurements from 1979

Mooring-based ocean current data from the New York Bight coastal region, collected over a 100-day period in 1979. The National Ocean Service gathered these measurements for the MESA-NYB project, processing them into the NODC F005 standard format. Records include current direction and speed, with potential auxiliary environmental parameters.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal patterns in current direction and speed at 10-15 minute intervals to characterize tidal and subtidal flow.
• Correlate reported water temperature and salinity data with current measurements to study density-driven circulation.
• Use sensor depth and water depth fields to profile vertical current structure at fixed mooring stations.
• Investigate relationships between wind direction/speed and surface current patterns from concurrent measurements.
• Validate hydrodynamic model outputs for the New York Bight using historical in-situ current and wave data.

Strengths

• Data collected at high temporal resolution, typically every 10-15 minutes.
• Adheres to a documented standard format (NODC F005) with defined metadata for position, depth, and sensor depth.
• Includes potential multi-parameter measurements beyond currents, such as temperature, salinity, and wave data.

Limitations

• Limited temporal coverage spanning only approximately 100 days in 1979.
• Unknown sample size and geographic distribution of the fixed platform stations.
• Data values may be subject to undocumented averaging or filtering from the original instruments.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Collection Method

Data collected from moored current-measuring instruments (e.g., Aanderaa current meters) on fixed platforms using Eulerian measurement.

Time Range

1979-04-03 to 1979-07-11

Freshness

null

Geography

New York Bight coastal region.