NOAA Coral Reef Water Temperature Data from Mariana Archipelago

Subsurface temperature recorder data monitors seawater temperature variability at permanent coral reef sites in the Mariana Archipelago. The dataset is part of the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program, collected by the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center's Coral Reef Ecosystem Program. High-accuracy SeaBird Electronics loggers are deployed for three-year periods at depths from 0 to 30 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing hourly seawater temperature trends at specific reef sites like Aguihan Island or Alamagan Island.
• Studying the relationship between water depth (0-30m) and temperature variability over multi-year deployments.
• Investigating gaps in temperature time-series data caused by instrument failure for sensor reliability studies.
• Monitoring long-term thermal conditions for coral reef resilience and bleaching event analysis.

Strengths

• Data is collected using high-accuracy SeaBird Electronics (SBE) temperature loggers.
• Instruments are deployed for extended 3-year periods at established, long-term monitoring sites.
• Raw data with sample intervals of 1-20 minutes is processed into an averaged hourly time-series.

Limitations

• Specific row count, total size, and complete column schema are unknown across all platforms.
• Data gaps longer than one hour are padded with null values due to instrument failure or battery death.
• The exact temporal coverage (start and end years) for the dataset is not provided.

Provenance

Source

NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP).

Collection Method

Data gathered from subsurface temperature recorders (STRs) deployed along depth transects at coral reef sites and recovered after approximately 3 years.

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:26:46.753477

Geography

Coral reef sites in the Mariana Archipelago, including specific islands like Aguihan, Alamagan, and Asuncion.