Maine River Water Quality Probe: Dissolved Oxygen and Temperature Time Series

Northern Ireland's Maine River downstream of the M2 Bridge is monitored by a high-frequency field probe deployed by the NIEA Freshwater Monitoring and Assessment team. It records Dissolved Oxygen (% saturation) and temperature (°C) every 30 minutes, with data loaded publicly approximately every 30 days. The data is provisional, non-validated, and subject to revision.

Use Cases

• Modeling diurnal and seasonal dissolved oxygen dynamics based on high-frequency 30-minute measurements.
• Analyzing water temperature trends and thermal pollution events in the Maine River.
• Calibrating or validating other water quality models using the probe's sensor accuracy specifications.
• Monitoring for potential sensor malfunctions or environmental anomalies flagged in the provisional data.

Strengths

• High-frequency temporal resolution with measurements recorded every 30 minutes.
• Sensor accuracy is specified: temperature +/- 0.1°C and dissolved oxygen +/- 5% saturation.
• Data is part of a long-term monitoring project, suggesting a continuous time series.

Limitations

• Data is explicitly flagged as non-validated, provisional, and subject to revision.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) Freshwater Monitoring and Assessment team.

Collection Method

Deployed field probe with optical DO and temperature sensors collecting automated measurements.

Freshness

Data is updated approximately every 30 days; last metadata update was 2026-03-18.

Geography

Maine River, downstream of the M2 Bridge, Northern Ireland.