Shallow Water CTD Profiles for Hawaiian Coral Reef Monitoring

Vertical conductivity-temperature-depth profiles characterize the physical and chemical properties of near-shore waters around the Hawaiian Archipelago. Data collection is part of the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program, using Sea-Bird Electronics sensors to measure temperature, salinity, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen. Profiles are collected from a small boat, descending to a maximum depth of 30 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical profiles of temperature and salinity to identify water mass structures influencing coral reefs.
• Correlating turbidity (beam transmittance) and dissolved oxygen measurements with coral reef health assessments from separate surveys.
• Establishing baseline physical and chemical conditions for coastal waters to monitor climate change impacts.
• Characterizing spatial structure of ocean properties like conductivity and density across selected monitoring sites.

Strengths

• Sensor accuracy is specified: conductivity (0.005 S m-1), temperature (0.0002°C), pressure (0.1%), and dissolved oxygen (2% of saturation).
• Data collection methodology is detailed, including descent rate (0.5 to 0.75 m s-1) and maximum profile depth (30 meters).
• Cross-platform presence on NASA EarthData and Data.gov indicates formal curation and importance for coral reef monitoring.

Limitations

• Exact row count, dataset size, and complete column names are not provided by any source.
• Sources provide no information on the temporal range (start/end years) of data collection.
• License information is absent from all provided platform descriptions.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), Coral Reef Ecosystem Program.

Collection Method

Collected by lowering a CTD package in profiling mode from a small boat; processed using Sea-Bird SeaSoft SBE Data Processing Software.

Time Range

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Freshness

2026-03-06 00:26:01.857523

Geography

Selected sites around the Hawaiian Archipelago, Central Pacific Ocean.