British Columbia lightstation monthly sea-surface temperature and salinity measurements, 1914 to present

Daily sea surface temperature and salinity observations have been carried out at several locations on the coast of British Columbia since the early part of the 20th century. Observations started at the Pacific Biological Station (Departure Bay) in 1914; 11 stations were added in the mid-1930s and several more in the 1960s. The number of stations reporting at any given time has varied as sampling has been discontinued at some stations and started or resumed at others.

Presently termed the British Columbia Shore Station Oceanographic Program (BCSOP), there are 12 participating stations where daily sea-surface temperature and salinity measurements have been collected from 1914 to present. Due to unfavourable sampling conditions, there are some gaps in the daily data.

Observations are made daily using seawater collected in a bucket lowered into the surface water at or near the daytime high tide. This sampling method was designed long ago by Dr. John P. Tully and has not been changed in the interests of a homogeneous data set. This means, for example, that if an observer starts sampling one day at 6 a.m., and continues to sample at the daytime high tide on the second day the sample will be taken at about 06:50 the next day, 07:40 the day after etc. When the daytime high-tide gets close to 6 p.m. the observer will then begin again to sample early in the morning, and the cycle continues. Since there is a day/night variation in the sea surface temperatures the daily time series will show a signal that varies with the14-day tidal cycle. This artifact does not affect the monthly sea surface temperature data.

The monthly data are calculated by averaging the daily data of each month.

Access and Use

Licence: Open Government Licence 2.0 (Canada)

Data and Resources

Citation

Keywords

Dataset extent

Metadata Reference Date(s) January 04, 2022 (Revision)
January 14, 2022 (Publication)
Data Reference Date(s) January 01, 1914 (Creation)
Frequency of Update As Needed

Responsible Party 1
Affiliation
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO)
Email
DFO.PAC.SCI.IOSData-DonneesISO.SCI.PAC.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Role
  • Custodian
  • Distributor
  • Owner

Field Value
Ocean Variables
  • Sea Surface Salinity
  • Sea Surface Temperature
Scope Dataset
Status On Going
Maintenance Note Generated from https://cioos-siooc.github.io/metadata-entry-form
Spatial Extent [[[-134.6, 47.53], [-121.5, 47.53], [-121.5, 55.28], [-134.6, 55.28], [-134.6, 47.53]]]
North Bounding Latitude 55.28
South Bounding Latitude 47.53
East Bounding Longitude -121.5
West Bounding Longitude -134.6
Temporal Extent
Begin
1914-01-01
Vertical Extent
Min
0.0
Max
0.0
Default Locale English
Included in Data Catalogue
Included in Data Catalogue 1
Name
CIOOS - Pacific Catalogue
Description
Home of Canada's Pacific Ocean Data
URL
https://catalogue.cioospacific.ca