Observations of current, temperature, pressure, conductivity and light transmission collected by the U.S. Geological Survey Sediment Dynamics Project, 1974-1992 (NCEI Accession 9900222)

This CDROM contains time series data collected by the Coastal Circulation and Sediment Transport Group of the Branch of Atlantic Marine Geology, U. S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The data were collected between 1974 and 1992 as part of field experiments to investigate the regional water circulation and sediment transport on selected portions of the U.S. continental margin. Included on this CDROM are measurements of water velocity, water temperature, salinity, conductivity, and pressure, which aid in understanding the causes of the currents and the sources of the waters; and measurements of the transmission and reflection of light by the water, which are indirect measures of the volume of sediment suspended in the water. Coastal sea level and meteorological observations are also included which have been collected by other agencies but archived to aid in the interpretation and analysis of the observations. These data were collected in economically and environmentally critical areas, mostly on the Atlantic Coast of the United States, including productive fishing grounds, submarine canyons, harbors and bays along the heavily settled Northeast, and sites proposed for petroleum development and waste disposal.

The data presented on this CD ROM were collected in a series of experiments designed to investigate aspects of the circulation and sediment transport on selected portions of the Atlantic and Pacific margins. In most cases, arrays of instruments were deployed for periods of 1-4 months. In some regions, a series of arrays were deployed over a period of several years. Long-term observations, 2 years or longer in length, were made at several locations to document seasonal and inter-annual variability and to provide a long-term context for the shorter array experiments. Analysis of these observations have been presented in numerous publications.