NODC Standard Format Oceanographic Station (SD2) Data (1898-1996) (NCEI Accession 9400123)

This dataset contains physical-chemical oceanographic data recorded at discrete depth levels, in NODC Standard Oceanographic Station Data (SD2 or C100) format. Most of the observations were made using multi-bottle Nansen casts or other types of water samplers. A small amount (about 5 percent) were obtained using electronic CTD (conductivity-temperature-depth) or STD (salinity- temperature-depth) recorders. The CTD/STD data were reported to NODC at depth levels equivalent to Nansen cast data, however, and have been processed and stored the same as the Nansen data. Cruise information (e.g., ship, country, institution), position, date, and time, and reported for each station. The principal measured parameters are temperature and salinity, but dissolved oxygen, phosphate, total phosphorus, silicate, nitrate, nitrite, and pH may be reported. Meteorological conditions at the time of the cast (e.g., air temperature and pressure, wind, waves) may also be reported, as well as auxiliary data such as water color (Forel-Ule scale), water transparency (Secchi disk depth), and depth to bottom. Values of density (sigma-t) sound velocity, and dynamic depth anomaly are computed from measured parameters. Each station contains the measurements taken at the observed depth levels, but also includes data values interpolated to a set of standard depth levels.