Arctic Marine Mammal Sighting Data from Aircraft Surveys (1990-1991)
Updated 4mo ago
12files
Available on 2 platforms
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Description
1990-1991 aircraft surveys recorded marine mammal sightings in the Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, and Arctic Ocean. The dataset is structured in the NODC F127 format, providing systematic observations of species, counts, and environmental context. It was collected by the US DOI Minerals Management Service and processed by NOAA NCEI.
Use Cases
Analyzing species-specific population densities and distributions across Arctic seas.
Studying migratory routes and breeding locales by linking sighting locations with date and time.
Investigating age structure demographics using reported counts by age group (adults, subadults, juveniles).
Correlating animal presence and behavior with environmental factors like distance to shoreline and ice edge.
Validating survey methodologies using recorded platform speed, direction, and altitude for each observation track.
Strengths
Data follows the standardized NODC F127 format, ensuring consistent structure for marine mammal observations.
Surveys provide systematic coverage across three major Arctic seas over a 14-month period from September 1990 to November 1991.
Annotations include detailed biological attributes such as species identification, total counts, and age group breakdowns.
Cross-platform presence on NASA EarthData and Data.gov signals importance and facilitates broader access.
Limitations
Key technical details like row count, file size, and specific column names are not provided by any source.
Sources conflict on the 'last updated' date, reporting both 1991-11-07 and 2026-03-05, suggesting a metadata inconsistency.
The original license and author information are unknown, which may restrict certain reuse scenarios.
Provenance
Source
US DOI; Minerals Management Service in Anchorage (MMS). Processed by NOAA NCEI.
Collection Method
Visual observation and other instruments from aircraft.
Time Range
1990-09-02 to 1991-11-07
Freshness
2026-03-05 22:41:24.067715
Geography
Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, Arctic Ocean
Data is presented in the specialized NODC F127 format; users may require documentation to interpret all fields correctly. License information is not provided.