Ocean Current Meter Data from the South Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf

NOAA NCEI Accession 7800778 contains time-series ocean current measurements from the vessel PIERCE. Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) collected the data in support of the Outer Continental Shelf - South Atlantic project. Measurements were recorded from October 23 to November 9, 1974.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal patterns of current direction and speed at specified sensor depths.
• Correlate water temperature and salinity measurements with current flow characteristics.
• Model relationships between reported wind direction/speed and surface ocean currents.
• Study dominant wave parameters (direction, height, period) in relation to other environmental data.

Strengths

• Data processed to the standardized NODC F005 format with a documented schema.
• Includes multiple environmental parameters beyond currents, such as temperature, salinity, and wind.

Limitations

• Dataset covers a limited temporal range of only 18 days in 1974.
• Specific sample size (row count) and geographic coordinates are unknown from the description.
• Data is over 50 years old, which may limit relevance for contemporary climate studies.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally collected by NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML).

Collection Method

Eulerian current measurements from moored instruments, principally Aanderaa current meters, deployed at a fixed point.

Time Range

1974-10-23 to 1974-11-09

Freshness

1974-11-09

Geography

South Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf, specific station positions are reported per the format but coordinates are not provided in the description.