The Baltic Sea, particularly the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland and the Northern Baltic Sea Proper; the Weddell Sea (1996) and the Denmark Strait (1990, 1993,1997)

Electrical conductivity of the water column; Dissolved oxygen parameters in the water column; Salinity of the water column; Temperature of the water column; Density of the water column

CTD

The data set comprises the CTD observations made by the FIMR on R/V Aranda cruises since 1977 and CTD observations made by Finnish Coast Guard on P/S Merikarhu at a fixed station in the Gulf of Finland since 1999. Nearly all the observations are from the Baltic Sea, mostly from the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and from the northern Baltic Proper. Outside the Baltic Sea data set contains CTD data from cruises to the Weddell Sea and to the Denmark Strait. The amount of CTD stations per year has varied between 500 and 1500. The measurement interval of the present CTD sondes is some centimetres, older sonde (used in years 1977-1985) had the interval of some tens centimetres. The small 'hang alone' SIS sonde have been used as an extra sonde on r/v Aranda and on a few cruises made with other vessels. Every CTD down-cast has been stored as one file or two files which include besides the proper CTD data (depth series per station) also the date, time and the position information. The data from the year 1991 onwards have been averaged in one dbar interval. The data of SBE sondes have been processed with Sea-Bird's standard software.

Finnish Meteorological Institute
Erik Palmenin aukio P.O. Box 503
Helsinki

FI-00101
Finland