Deep Water Observations From Russian And Foreign Cruises

120 magnetic tapes contain water bottle data from 15,000 Russian and foreign oceanographic cruises. The dataset, compiled by the Russian National Oceanographic Data Centre (NODC), includes cruise reference numbers, country, organization, ship, period, and geographical region. This historical collection was last updated in 1985.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical water properties by geographical region and period from cruise records.
• Study the distribution of research activities by country and organization using the ship and organization fields.
• Trace specific research expeditions via the reference number Russian NODC and station number fields.
• Investigate the types of observations conducted across different geographical regions over time.

Strengths

• Data from 15,000 distinct research cruises provides broad historical coverage.
• Includes multiple descriptive fields per cruise, such as country, ship, and geographical region.

Limitations

• Data is stored on 120 legacy magnetic tapes, posing a significant access and digitization challenge.
• No update since 1985, making the information temporally stale for contemporary analysis.
• Specific data parameters and sample sizes for water bottle measurements are unknown.

Provenance

Source

Russian National Oceanographic Data Centre (NODC), aggregated via NASA Earthdata.

Collection Method

Compilation of water bottle data from oceanographic cruise observations.

Time Range

Historical periods covered by the 15,000 cruises; specific range unknown.

Freshness

Last updated in 1985; no update frequency specified.

Geography

Geographical regions covered by Russian and foreign cruises; specific coverage unknown.