OCS-Mid Atlantic: Water Column Chemistry and Physics, 1975-1977

Mid Atlantic Shelf water column data were collected from the R/V COLUMBUS ISELIN and other vessels between October 1975 and November 1977. The dataset contains measurements of temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and nutrients like nitrate and phosphate, processed into the NODC F014 standard format. It was submitted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science as part of the Ocean Continental Shelf - Mid Atlantic project.

Use Cases

• Analyzing seasonal nutrient concentrations based on nitrate and phosphate measurements.
• Studying water column stratification using temperature and salinity profiles.
• Modeling historical dissolved oxygen levels in shelf waters.
• Calibrating modern sensor data against historical bottle cast measurements.

Strengths

• Data spans a multi-year period from October 1975 to November 1977.
• Includes a specific set of chemical and physical parameters (e.g., temperature, salinity, nitrate, phosphate).
• Processed to a documented federal standard (NODC F014 format).

Limitations

• Conflicting temporal coverage: one source specifies a 10-day period in 1975, while another spans over two years (1975-1977).
• Critical metadata is missing: column names, row counts, file size, and license are unknown.
• Documentation is external, requiring a link to the NODC archive for full format details.

Provenance

Source

Virginia Institute of Marine Science - Gloucester Point

Collection Method

Collected using current meter and bottle casts from research vessels.

Time Range

1975-10-23 to 1977-11-06

Freshness

Metadata was last updated on datagov in March 2026, though the underlying data is from the 1970s.

Geography

Mid Atlantic continental shelf