Scottish coastal waters, central and northern North Sea, Rockall, NE Atlantic

Electrical conductivity of the water column; Vertical velocity of the water column (currents); Salinity of the water column; Horizontal velocity of the water column (currents); Temperature of the water column; Transmittance and attenuance of the water column

Sea level recorders; current meters; transmissometers; thermistor chains

The bulk of this data set comprises current speed and direction data recorded by the above named instruments. Because of the similarities in the data themselves, and in the processing applied to the data, it was decided that data from water level recorders, thermistor chains and additional data from other sensors (e.g. temperature, conductivity, pressure and light transmission) be included in what was originally the MLA Current Meter Data Set . The data are fully and carefully quality controlled. Spikes and other erroneous data values are isolated using a combination of screen editing and hard-copy graphics. Time series analysis is used to check the residual and tidal components of the signal. Within the data set, individual records range in length from 1 day to 13 months. In general, data were recorded at either 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, or 60 minute intervals depending on the planned length of the deployment or the planned uses for the data. Each record is described by a header block comprising mooring position, instrument depth, sounding at the mooring location, start date and time, number of observations per hour, number of hourly means and instrument type. Prior to 1976, all data has been archived as hourly means only. To date, some 1135 instruments have been deployed on 710 moorings with a return of some 1,234940 hours of valid data. These moored self-recording instrument records have all been collected on many cruises under many different projects and programmes in which the Laboratory has been involved. No other data collected by any other organisation, national or international, is included in this data set. These data form part of the UK National Databank of Moored Current Meter Data.

Fisheries Research Services, Aberdeen Marine Laboratory
PO Box 101 Victoria Road
Aberdeen
Aberdeenshire
AB11 9DB
United Kingdom