U.S. Geological Survey Oceanographic Time Series Data Collection
The oceanographic time series data collected by U.S. Geological Survey scientists and collaborators are
served in an online database at
http://stellwagen.er.usgs.gov/index.html. These data were collected as
part of research experiments investigating circulation and sediment transport in the coastal ocean. The
experiments (projects, research programs) are typically one month to several years long and have been
carried out since 1975. New experiments will be conducted, and the data from them will be added to the
collection. As of 2016, all but one of the experiments were conducted in waters abutting the U.S. coast;
the exception was conducted in the Adriatic Sea. Measurements acquired vary by site and experiment;
they usually include current velocity, wave statistics, water temperature, salinity, pressure, turbidity,
and light transmission from one or more depths over a time period. The measurements are concentrated
near the sea floor but may also include data from the water column.
The user interface provides an interactive map, a tabular summary of the experiments, and a separate
page for each experiment. Each experiment page has documentation and maps that provide details of what
data were collected at each site. Links to related publications with additional information about the
research are also provided. The data are stored in Network Common Data Format (netCDF) files using the
Equatorial Pacific Information Collection (EPIC) conventions defined by the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. NetCDF is a general,
self-documenting, machine-independent, open source data format created and supported by the University
Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). EPIC is an early set of standards designed to allow
researchers from different organizations to share oceanographic data. The files may be downloaded or
accessed online using the Open-source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol (OPeNDAP). The OPeNDAP
framework allows users to access data from anywhere on the Internet using a variety of Web services
including Thematic Realtime Environmental Distributed Data Services (THREDDS). A subset of the data
compliant with the Climate and Forecast convention (CF, currently version 1.6) is also available.
Datasets are organized by experiment; a tabular list the experiment names, the principal investigators, when and where the experiments were conducted is available at
http://stellwagen.er.usgs.gov/experiments.html. The links take you to the individual experiment pages with more detailed explanation, data summaries and access. These pages may also be used to explain the content of the top-level THREDDS catalog links provided in the data distribution section.
