This collection comprises physical measurements of the water column and surface waters, together with supporting discrete chemical and biological datasets. The data were obtained from the Irish Sea and in the sea off western Scotland over 4 periods: 17 and 23 August 2011 and 06 - 07 March 2012, all collected on Seiont IV cruises and 15 - 22 June 2012 obtained using the RV Prince Madog. These datasets and their collection methods are as follows: 1) LISST particle size data - A LISST 100X type C laser diffraction instrument was lowered in a frame from the ship and the depth-averaged volumes of particles in 32 size classes in a water column from the surface to a depth of 10 m (or the bottom, where shallower) were measured. 2) CTD profiles of conductivity, temperature, sigma-theta and salinity. At each station, a CTD with attached rosette was lowered, with data measurements taken. 3) SPM, mineral SPM, chlorophyll and CDOM water sample data. At each station a surface water sample was collected either in a bucket or in a rosette sampler on the CTD and triplicate sub-samples were filtered and subsequently dried and weighed, baked (at 500°C for 3 hours to remove organic material) and weighed again. 4) CDOM discrete samples taken from CTD and underway. Surface water samples collected at each station were filtered through 0.2 μm filters and the spectral variation of the absorption coefficient of the dissolved material in the filtrate was measured in a 10 cm cell in a Shimadzu 1600 dual-beam spectrophotometer, using distilled water as a reference.. 5) Water column inherent optical property profiles. Measurements of beam attenuation were made using a Sea Tech T1000 transmissometer (20cm pathlength) fixed to the CTD on the RV Prince Madog. At some stations, vertical profiles of downwelling irradiance and upwelling radiance were made with a PRR radiometer. These cruises formed the fieldwork component of the NERC-funded project “Measurement of the abundance and optical significance of sub-micron sized particles in the ocean”. The project aimed to use different magnifications and commercially available in-situ particle sizing instruments to create a package of instruments for measuring the undisturbed particle size distributions from 0.2 μm to 1 mm. This package will first be used in a turbulence tank to 'film' the flocculation process. The insight this gives will be used to construct new theoretical models of the particle size distribution. Because the camera also measures the shape of the particles, differences between observed and calculated optical properties can be compared, for the first time, to particle shape. Finally, the complete dataset will be collated to determine what size particles, under what conditions, are primarily responsible for the signals seen in visible band satellite images of the oceans. The NERC-funded project was held under lead grant reference NE/H022090/1 with child grants NE/H020853/1 and NE/H021493/1. The lead grant was held at Bangor University, School of Ocean Sciences by Professor David Bowers and ran from 01 April 2011 to 31 March 2014. Grant NE/H020853/1 was held at the University of Plymouth, School of Marine Science and Engineering by Dr. William Alexander Nimmo Smith and ran from 01 October 2010 to 30 September 2013. Finally, grant NE/H021493/1 was held at the University of Strathclyde Physics Department by Dr. David McKee and ran from 01 April 2011 to 31 March 2014. All data have been received by BODC as raw files from the RV Prince Madog and Seiont IV, processed and quality controlled using in-house BODC procedures.

This dataset comprises field measurements of waves, currents and beach shape collected from the (nine segmented shore-parallel) breakwaters at Sea Palling, Norfolk between October 2005 and April 2007 as part of a 3-year programme funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Field data were collected using Global Positioning System (GPS) surveys, acoustic current meters, video systems, radar, and side-scan sonar imaging of bedforms. These data were used to evaluate the effects of the breakwaters on the low-lying, flood-prone coastal sub-cell between Happisburgh and Waxham over two years. The field measurements were used in combination with computer models to monitor the manner in which the sea defences interact with nearby beaches and to provide enhanced tools for improving the design guidelines for coastal defences. The project partners were the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia; Department of Civil Engineering, University of Liverpool; Coastal Engineering Group, University of Plymouth; Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory; Halcrow Engineering; HR Wallingford Ltd; and the Environment Agency. The data are stored at the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC).

The dataset includes measurements of currents, waves, temperature, salinity, sea level, attenuation and concentrations of suspended particulates. The data were collected off the Holderness coast (just north of the Humber Estuary, UK East Coast) during the winters of 1993-1994, 1994-1995 and 1995-1996. The experiment involved the deployment of mooring platforms, each holding a bottom pressure recorder, acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP), electromagnetic current meter (EMCM) and a transmissometer, at 8 stations along two lines off the Holderness coast. There were very little ADCP data for the 1993 and 1994 deployments. The River-Atmosphere-Coast Study (RACS) was the component of the LOIS programme looking at processes from the river catchment into the coastal sea. The Holderness Experiment data were collected by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL) and the University of Hull. The data are held by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC)

The dataset comprises measurements of hydrographic, bathymetric, sedimentary and meteorological parameters. These include water currents, temperature, salinity and wave parameters; suspended and seabed sediment; coastal geomorphological characteristics; and atmospheric temperature, pressure, humidity, irradiance and wind velocities. The study area was centred on the tidal inlet within the Peninsula do Ancao, Ria Formosa National Park, Algarve, Portugal. Field measurements were collected in the offshore area, the surf zone, beach experiments, the inlet areas and the inlet mouth between January and March 1999. The study utilised moorings, sediment grabs, tidal predictions, radar systems, acoustic Doppler current profiler (ACDP) surveys, a jack-up barge, beach experiments, video tower images, aerial surveys, seabed photographs and field campaign images. INDIA aimed to gain a better understanding of the interactions between tides, waves, currents and sedimentary processes at work in the European coastal zone with a view to predicting change. INDIA was coordinated by the University of Liverpool, Department of Civil Engineering. Data have been provided and/or modelled by a number of organisations from countries including France, Poland, Portugal, Australia, Netherlands, USA and the UK. Data management support for the project was provided by the British Oceanographic Data Centre. All data collected as part of the project were lodged with BODC who had responsibility for assembling and fully documenting the data.

This dataset comprises of suspended sediment, sediment transport and water column structure data collected at two sites in the mouth of the Dee Estuary, Liverpool Bay during February and March of every year from 2005 to 2009. Throughout each data collection cruise the RV Prince Madog underway monitoring system recorded latitude, longitude, ship speed and heading, depth, air temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), sea temperature and salinity, beam transmission, fluorescence and, for 2009, dissolved oxygen concentration. At each site visit profiles of the water column were made over a 25 hour tidal cycle using a conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensor package. Measurements include temperature, salinity, PAR, beam attenuation, particle scattering and transmission, fluorescence, and oxygen concentration. Additionally samples of salinity, suspended particulate matter and in-situ temperature at discrete depths within the water column were obtained and grab samples were taken from the sea-bed after each CTD cast. The RV Prince Madog also performed side-scan sonar tows. During the February cruises mooring frames were deployed on the sea-bed. These frames provided current profiles, particle size information, particle scattering information, bed ripple profiles, sediment settling velocity and temperature, salinity and pressure at each site. The mooring frames were recovered during the March cruises. The main aim of this research was to assess and advance the latest marine sediment transport models. These data allow this assessment to be made by providing information on the complex inter-dependence of sediment processes in the bottom boundary layer. The data were collected by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (now the National Oceanography Centre). Data management was provided by the British Oceanographic Data Centre.

This dataset comprises measurements of primary productivity, nutrient, optics and water column structure data (including turbulence information) collected from the Celtic Sea and nearby shelf-edge during 25 July to 14 August 2003 and 15 July to 06 August 2005. Compatible, high-resolution vertical profiles of physical, chemical, and biological parameters were obtained. These were collected by deployments of a conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensor package, a Fast Light Yo-yo (FLY) turbulence profiler and SeaSoar profiler sections, thus allowing quantification of vertical fluxes and primary production on tidal and internal wave time scales. During the CTD profiles, water samples were taken and analysed for nutrients, chlorophyll, primary productivity, sediment concentration, coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM), trace metal concentrations, dissolved oxygen and salinity. Optical profiles were also taken during 2005 using two radiometers; a Biospherical Instruments PRR-600 and a Satlantic MicroPro. In addition, acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) moorings were deployed around the Celtic Sea to measure current and temperature profiles. The main aim was to investigate the generation and dissipation of turbulence in the thermocline, and to quantify how the resulting mixing (supplying nutrients and controlling the light experienced by the algae) affects the growth of phytoplankton within the sub-surface chlorophyll maximum. The data were collected by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (now the National Oceanography Centre) and by Bangor University. Data management was provided by the British Oceanographic Data Centre.

The dataset contains hydrographic and biogeochemical data, including continuous underway measurements of surface temperature, salinity, nutrients, chlorophyll and attenuance, irradiance and bathymetric depth. Underway dissolved oxygen and/or trace metal measurements were also collected on occasion. Hydrographic profiles of temperature, salinity, transmittance, fluorescence, dissolved oxygen (data often of poor quality) and scalar irradiance were undertaken, and associated water samples were routinely analysed for suspended particulate material (SPM), chlorophyll, nutrients and particulate organic carbon/particulate organic nitrogen (POC/PON). In addition, dissolved and particulate trace metals, production, contaminants, dissolved organic carbon/total dissolved nitrogen (DOC/TDN) were determined in some cases. Benthic measurements were also collected, including benthic flux determinations (microcosm experiments), sediment characterisation, pore water chemistry measurements and the quantification of the benthic macrofauna. The coastal oceanographic data set was collected along the east coast of England between Great Yarmouth and Berwick upon Tweed. Data were collected between December 1992 and July 1995 during a series of 17 RRS Challenger cruise legs. Most cruises covered two survey grids: one from Great Yarmouth to the Humber designed around the distribution of the sandbanks and a second simple zig-zag grid from the Humber to Berwick on Tweed. A large number of anchor stations, usually over one or two tidal cycles, were worked in the vicinity of the Humber mouth or the Holderness coast. Each cruise leg returned underway data and conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) data and water bottle rosette samples from grid nodes. A Lasentech in-situ particle sizer was used to obtain grain size distributions at spot depths for each CTD station on many of the cruise legs. Box and multicorer samples were collected on approximately one third of the cruise legs. The River-Atmosphere-Coast Study (RACS) was the component of the Land Ocean Interaction Study (LOIS) programme looking at processes from the river catchment into the coastal sea. Investigators include representatives of Plymouth University, Southampton University, Liverpool University, University of East Anglia, Newcastle University, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and the University of Wales, Bangor. All data sets collected during the RACS Challenger cruises are held by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC). All underway and CTD data have been fully calibrated and quality controlled by BODC. The water sample and benthic data sets have been quality controlled by the data originators and submitted to BODC. The data are held in the BODC project database and have been published as part of a fully documented CD-ROM product.

The dataset includes a wide range of physical, chemical and biological oceanographic parameters. Physical hydrographic measurements include temperature, salinity, optical backscatter, current velocities and turbulence, while biogeochemical measurements in the water column include dissolved oxygen, organic carbon and nitrogen, and nutrients. Biogeochemical parameters were also measured in sediment cores, while phytoplankton and zooplankton data were also collected. The marine data were supplemented by meteorological measurements including temperature, pressure, irradiance and wind. The experimental phase of the project was undertaken in the North Sea between 1998 and 1999, and data were collected at two contrasting sites: Northern North Sea (NNS, 59deg 20.0E, 1deg 00.0E) and Southern North Sea (SNS, 52deg 15.0N, 4deg 17.0E). At both locations measurements were concentrated at a central position with additional measurements being made to estimate horizontal gradients. Moored instruments were deployed at NNS from September - November 1998 and at SNS from March - May 1999. Each experiment was supported by intensive measurement series made from oceanographic ships and involving turbulence dissipation profiler, conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) profilers, particle size profilers, optical profilers, benthic sampling and water bottle sampling. PROVESS is an interdisciplinary study of the vertical fluxes of properties through the water column and the surface and bottom boundary layers with the aim of improving understanding and quantification of vertical exchange processes in the water column. Scientists from 18 institutions distributed in 8 European countries participated in the fieldwork and modelling parts of the programme and was co-ordinated by John Howarth of the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory. The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) is responsible for assembling the data collected during the project into a comprehensive data set. The data has been organised onto a CD-ROM product available through BODC.