Northeast Pacific Ocean Seasonal Climatologies 1980-2010

Fisheries and Oceans Canada provides seasonal climatologies for temperature, salinity, and sigma-t in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. The data was computed from historical CTD, bottle, XBT, and Argo observations spanning 31 years from 1980 to 2010. Calculations were performed across sixty-five subregions and up to fifty-two vertical levels from the surface to 5000m depth.

Use Cases

• Analyze seasonal temperature and salinity patterns across sixty-five subregions to study ocean climate variability.
• Model sigma-t (density) changes over fifty-two vertical levels to understand water column stratification dynamics.
• Validate regional ocean models using 31 years of spatially interpolated climatological averages for the Northeast Pacific.
• Investigate uncertainties in climatological averages introduced by spatial interpolation from observational points.

Strengths

• Data spans a 31-year period from 1980 to 2010, providing a long-term climatological baseline.
• Analyses cover sixty-five distinct subregions and fifty-two vertical levels, offering detailed spatial and depth resolution.
• Integrates data from multiple authoritative sources including NOAA, MEDS, and Institute of Ocean Sciences archives.

Limitations

• Uncertainties are introduced due to spatial interpolation of observations over distances ranging from 100m to 70km.
• The dataset's last update is from 2026, but the underlying observational data ends in 2010, creating a temporal gap.
• Specific sample sizes, row counts, and detailed column structures for the underlying observational data are not provided.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Collection Method

Computed from historical conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD), bottle, expendable bathy-thermograph (XBT), and Argo data via spatial interpolation and seasonal median calculations.

Time Range

1980 to 2010

Freshness

Last metadata update was 2026-03-24, but the data coverage ends in 2010.

Geography

Northeast Pacific Ocean