North Pacific Ocean Carbon and Hydrographic Profiles from WOCE Cruise P16N, 1997

23,000 stations from 94 WOCE cruises form the final collection of this ocean carbon survey program. This subset includes discrete sample and profile data for dissolved inorganic carbon, alkalinity, nutrients, and chlorofluorocarbons collected from the R/V Thomas G. Thompson in the North Pacific Ocean during November 1997. The data were collected by researchers from Hawaii Pacific University and the University of Washington as part of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean carbon uptake and acidification based on dissolved inorganic carbon and alkalinity measurements.
• Analyzing deep water circulation and ventilation rates based on chlorofluorocarbon (CFC-11, CFC-12) tracer data.
• Studying nutrient distributions and biogeochemical cycles in the North Pacific based on nitrate, phosphate, and silicate data.
• Calibrating or validating oceanographic models using concurrent physical profile data for temperature, salinity, and pressure.

Strengths

• Data is part of a major international program (WOCE) with a standardized collection methodology.
• Includes multiple concurrent chemical and physical variables (13 listed) for coherent environmental analysis.
• Collection period (1990-1998) provides a historical baseline for climate change studies.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count for this specific accession is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal and geographic bias inherent to a single 11-day cruise in 1997.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Discrete samples and continuous profiles collected using CTD and bottle instruments.

Time Range

1997-11-01 to 1997-11-11 (subset of broader program from 1990-1998)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-05 23:19:35.273765; freshness should be verified.

Geography

North Pacific Ocean