Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory Oceanographic Time Series

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory provides processed oceanographic data collected near South Beach in Edgartown, Massachusetts. Data are downloaded from the shore lab every twenty minutes and processed into burst-averaged statistics. The Coastal and Ocean Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (COFDL) at WHOI initiated the project to study coastal atmospheric and oceanic processes.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal patterns in oceanographic variables using the 'Yday' (GMT) timestamp field.
• Model coastal atmospheric and oceanic processes using burst-averaged statistics from the observatory instruments.
• Study diurnal or seasonal cycles by subsetting data via the web interface using the year and day-of-year (yday) file naming convention.
• Validate satellite-derived coastal data against in-situ measurements from specific instrument IDs (e.g., Campmt_s).

Strengths

• Data collection occurs at a high frequency, with downloads from the shore lab every twenty minutes.
• Provides historical data access via web interface and anonymous FTP, allowing retrieval of long-term records.
• Data files include descriptive headers and example Matlab m-files for reading year-to-date files, aiding usability.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, column details, and complete variable lists are not provided in the description.
• The geographic scope is limited to a single coastal observatory site near Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
• Data freshness and the exact temporal coverage of the available historical records are unspecified.

Provenance

Source

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Coastal and Ocean Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (COFDL).

Collection Method

In-situ measurements collected by the Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory (MVCO), downloaded and processed into burst-averaged statistics.

Time Range

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Freshness

Data are downloaded and processed every twenty minutes, with the most current data presented on the MVCO homepage.

Geography

Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory near South Beach, Edgartown, Massachusetts, USA.