Northwest Pacific Ocean Station and Bathythermograph Data

This dataset contains physical-chemical oceanographic measurements from the northwest Pacific Ocean, collected between 1972 and 1986. It includes data from bottle casts, CTD/STD recorders, and bathythermograph instruments, processed by NODC into standard C100 Ocean Station and C125 XBT formats. The Japan Oceanographic Data Center provided the original data, which is now stewarded by NOAA NCEI.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical profiles of temperature and salinity (sigma-t) from discrete depth levels.
• Studying nutrient cycles by examining phosphate, silicate, nitrate, and nitrite concentrations.
• Investigating water mass properties using computed values like sound velocity and dynamic depth anomaly.
• Correlating meteorological conditions (air temperature, pressure, wind) with surface oceanographic observations.
• Examining temperature-depth profiles obtained from expendable bathythermograph (XBT) instruments.

Strengths

• Data is processed to NODC standard formats (C100 and C125), ensuring a degree of consistency.
• Includes interpolated data values for a set of standard depth levels, facilitating cross-station comparison.
• Covers a multi-decade time range from 1972-07-02 to 1986-12-12.

Limitations

• Critical metadata conflicts exist: one source lists a last update of 2026-03-05, while another shows 1986-12-12, creating uncertainty about data currency.
• Specific row counts, file sizes, and a complete list of columns are unavailable from the provided sources.
• Approximately 95% of observations are from multi-bottle Nansen casts, with only about 5% from electronic CTD/STD recorders.

Provenance

Source

Japan Oceanographic Data Center, processed by NODC/NOAA NCEI.

Collection Method

Collected using bottle casts, CTD, GEK, XBT, DBT, and MBT instruments from ship platforms.

Time Range

1972-07-02 to 1986-12-12

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:59:48.982219

Geography

Northwest Pacific Ocean