Data from this project is a UK contribution to a US research cruise that aimed to examine the impact of wave breaking and bubble processes on air-sea gas exchange. Measurements were made of whitecap fraction, wave state, wave bubble statistics and bubble properties beneath breaking waves on the R/V Knorr KN213-3 cruise departing Nuuk, Greenland October 9, 2013 arriving at Woods Hole, USA on November 12, 2013. Instruments and platforms used included an 11 meter long free-floating spar buoy equipped with wave wires, a bubble camera, acoustic resonators, a Waverider buoy and ship measurements of aerosol fluxes. Data generation were funded by NERC parent grant NE/J020893/1 awarded to Professor Ian Brooks and associated child grants NE/J020540/1 and NE/J022373/2 awarded to Mr Robin Pascal and Dr Helen Czerski respectively.

This dataset contains high and low water values manually digitised from historic hand-written tabulated ledgers, from the Port of London Authority (PLA). The dataset contains 463 years of data, from across 15 tide gauge sites along the Thames Estuary (bounding box = -0.3159W, 51.3914N, 1.3797E, 51.8428N), for the period 1911 to 1995. When these historic records are combined with digital records available from the PLA since 1995, the new sea level time-series spans the 109-year period from 1911 to 2019. London is one of the world’s most important coastal cities and is located around the Thames Estuary. Quantifying changes in sea levels in the Thames Estuary over the 20th century and early part of the 21st century is vital to inform future management of flood risk in London. This dataset is of importance for ongoing monitoring of mean sea-level rise, and changes in tidal range and extreme sea levels in the Thames Estuary. The project was led by the Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton and the Environment Agency, with contributions from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemunde and the National Oceanography Centre. The study contributes to the objectives of UK National Environment Research Council (NERC) project E-Rise: Earliest detection of sea-level rise accelerations to inform lead time to upgrade/replace coastal flood defence infrastructure (NE/P009069/1; I.D.H.).

The dataset comprises chlorophyll-a concentrations from water samples taken during RRS James Clark Ross cruise JR304, from 15/11/2014 - 17/12/2014. The cruise sailed from Punta Arenas, Chile, returning to Stanley, Falkland Islands. Samples were taken during transit to Signy Island (South Orkneys), and then up through the Scotia Sea to BAS survey sites P2 and P3 as well as near South Georgia and in the Western Core Box survey area to the north of the island of South Georgia. 112 samples were collected from the ship’s uncontaminated underway supply, with an intake at approximately 6 m depth, every two hours during transit periods. 103 samples were collected, using a rosette sampler, from the upper 1000m during CTD (conductivity, temperature and depth probe) deployments. Each 300ml sample was filtered through a 0.8μm pore size, 25mm diameter, MPF300 filter, rinsed with milliQ water, placed in an eppendorf tube and stored at -20°C for later analysis. Samples were extracted in 90 % acetone for 22-24 hours at 4°C and measured on a Trilogy Turner Designs 7200 lab fluorometer calibrated with a pure chlorophyll-a standard (Sigma, UK) and set up following the method of Welschmeyer (1994). Data have not been adjusted for blanks. The data set was from the annual Western Core Box Cruise run by British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Data were collected to support the PhD of Anna Belcher and provide seasonal context for the cruise in terms of the primary production in the surface ocean. Chlorophyll samples were taken by Jenny Thomas (BAS), Gabi Stowasser (BAS), Sophie Fielding(BAS), Vicky Peck (BAS), Jess Gardner (University of East Anglia and BAS), Cecilia Liszka (BAS), Manon Duret (National Oceanography Centre, NOC), Anna Belcher (NOC), Anna Mikis (Cardiff University) , Marianne Wootton (Sir Alistair Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science), Sebastien Floter (GEOMAR Kiel). Chlorophyll samples were analysed aboard the R.R.S. James Clark Ross by Manon Duret and Anna Belcher from NOC.

This dataset includes two cruises of data collected to investigate Arctic hydrate dissociation as a consequence of climate change and to determine vulnerable methane reservoir and gas escape mechanisms. Work during both JR269A and JR269B was focused on two separate geographical areas. The first of these was west of Prins Karls Forland, in water depths of between 150 and 1200 m. At its landward end, this survey area crosses a region at water depths up to 400 m where a dense concentration of methane escape bubble plumes occur. The second survey area straddles the summit of the Vestnesa Ridge, in water depths of 1180 to 1400 m, and is also the site of methane escape bubble plumes within the water column and of fluid escape chimneys and pockmarks previously imaged at and beneath the sea bed. This area lies approximately 100 km west of the mouth of Kongsfjorden. Data collection took place between August 2011 and July 2012. The research expedition used a deep-towed, very high resolution seismic system to image the small-scale structures that convey gas to the seabed and to detect the presence of gas in the sediments. This was done in conjunction with an electromagnetic exploration system that uses a deep-towed transmitter and receivers on the seabed to derive the variations in electrical resistivity in the sediments beneath the seabed. The observations carried out on the two cruises included; underway, meteorological observations and echo sounder data, multichannel seismic reflection profiling data, wide angle seismic survey data, and ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) data, ocean bottom electro-magnetometer data and controlled source electromagnetic surveys (CSEM). The overall objectives of the project were to determine the spatial distribution of gas and hydrate accumulations beneath the sea bed; to investigate and understand gas transport and escape mechanisms, their spatial distribution, and the controls on these; and to quantify gas and hydrate saturation values in situ within the pore spaces of the shallow sediment reservoirs. The research is focused on specific areas where significant accumulations of methane hydrate and active methane venting through the sea floor were observed and documented during the earlier JR211 cruise in 2008. This is a NERC funded project hosted by University of Southampton. The data held at BODC include multichannel seismic reflection, TOPAS sub-bottom profiler and 2D seismic reflection data in SEG-Y format. No further data are expected.

The data set comprises time series measurements from offshore pressure gauges mounted on the sea floor. The data holdings are approximately 100 observation months from 30 sites. The data are mainly from trans-ocean sections in the North Atlantic. Data records contain date/time, total pressure (or relative pressure) and, occasionally, temperature. The sampling interval is typically 15 minutes or hourly, over deployment periods ranging from 1 to 6 months. Data were collected mainly by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL), now the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) at Liverpool, and are managed by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC).

The WireWall project developed a prototype wave overtopping field measurement system. The system was designed and trailed at Crosby Beach, Hall Road carpark, north of Liverpool during winter 2018/2019. The data collected include both wave-by-wave overtopping volumes and horizontal velocities. At the time of the project the coastal structure at this site comprised a stepped revetment and vertical sea wall with a recurve. The system was designed at the National Oceanography Centre, validated in HR Wallingford’s flume facility and deployed with Sefton Council. Five datasets are available from the project. These contain processed data from: 1) The numerical wave overtopping estimates for past events used to design the system and plan deployments; 2) The numerical wave overtopping estimates for the joint wave and water level conditions with a 1 in 1 year return period probability to a 1 in 200 year return period probability in Liverpool Bay; 3) The dock side tests; 4) The physical laboratory experiments; and, 5) The field trials during windy spring tides. For Crosby these data can be used to validate/calibrate numerical tools used for coastal scheme design and flood hazard forecasting. Beach profile data collected alongside the overtopping measurements have been archived with the Northwest Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme, https://www.channelcoast.org/northwest/. This project was delivered by the National Oceanography Centre in collaboration with HR Wallingford. Our project partners were Sefton Council, Balfour Beatty, Environment Agency, Channel Coastal Observatory and Marlan Maritime Technologies.