Fisheries Oceanography in Coastal Alabama (FOCAL) acoustic doppler wave and current profiler data 2018-06-21 to 2019-05-15 (NCEI Accession 0211052)

Description

This dataset contains the current velocity throughout the water column from an Nortek Acoustic Doppler Wave and Current profiler (AWAC). This dataset is from a small coastal ocean observing system 25 kilometers southwest of the mouth of Mobile Bay, Alabama (30.0902 N 88.2116 W), that the Dauphin Island Sea Lab has been operating. The instrument was in a bottom mounted upward looking trawl resistant housing in 20 m of water. Note the wave measurement component was not turned on for the deployment. This data is a subset of the regularly maintained FOCAL mooring. The deployment period was from June 21, 2018 to May 15, 2019. The instrument sampled the water column at 0.5 m bins for 5 minutes (i.e., 5 min average) every 20 min. Bin depth locations as well as all needed information is in the header file (Dump.hdr).

Purpose

The oceanographic community routinely collects time-series data of hydrographic properties and water current velocity of the marine environment. Such data are essential for establishing baseline characteristics of marine and estuarine ecosystems. The objective of this ongoing research is to monitor the physical structure of the coastal ocean. The site is the longest running time series of water column data in the Mississippi Bight and is an important asset for assessing long-term changes in the physical state of the region. Hydrographic and current velocity data from this site have been used in multiple physical and interdisciplinary studies of circulation, hydrography, and the biophysical interactions associated with the inner shelf of the Northern Gulf of Mexico.

DOI: 10.25921/h8bd-mt38

Suggested Citation

Dzwonkowski, Brian; Lockridge, Grant (2020). Fisheries Oceanography in Coastal Alabama (FOCAL) acoustic doppler wave and current profiler data 2018-06-21 to 2019-05-15 (NCEI Accession 0211052). [indicate subset used]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.25921/h8bd-mt38. Accessed [date].