Chemical and physical oceanographic data collected from the THOMAS WASHINGTON vessel during two cruises in May-July 1991. The dataset includes measurements of dissolved inorganic carbon, alkalinity, chlorofluorocarbons, isotopes, and nutrients across the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Pacific Ocean. These observations were collected by Catherine Goyet of the University of Perpignan as part of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) Hydrographic Program.
Use Cases
- Modeling ocean carbon uptake and storage based on dissolved inorganic carbon and alkalinity measurements.
- Analyzing historical chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) distributions to trace ocean ventilation and mixing.
- Studying nutrient cycles (nitrate, phosphate, silicate) in relation to ocean productivity.
- Calibrating or validating climate models using potential temperature and salinity profiles.
- Investigating ocean tracer dynamics using helium, tritium, and carbon isotope data.
Strengths
- Data is part of the large-scale World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), which covered approximately 23,000 stations from 94 cruises.
- Includes a focused suite of 18 key chemical and physical variables relevant to ocean carbon and climate research.
- Provides discrete sample and profile data from specific research cruises (TUNES_1 and WOCE_P17C) with known instruments (CTD and bottle).
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Last updated 1991-07-11; freshness should be verified for contemporary research.
- Row count and file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
Provenance
- Source
- NOAA_NCEI (NODC Accession 0115000)
- Collection Method
- Discrete sample and profile observations using CTD, bottle and other instruments.
- Time Range
- 1991-05-31 to 1991-07-11
- Geography
- Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, North Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean