National Oceanography Centre (Southampton)
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The CreamT project converted the prototype WireWall wave overtopping field measurement system into a ruggedised monitoring system between August 2020 and August 2023. The system was deployed for up to a year in two high-energy coastal environments along the Southwest coast, UK (Dawlish and Penzance). The system was designed to have a 3-month maintenance interval and was programmed to measure overtopping condition ±3hrs either side of predicted high tide. The wave-by-wave overtopping data were telemetered to the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) every 10 minutes. At the time of the project, the coastal structures at these sites comprised a vertical sea wall with small return lip or curve at the top. Both sea walls were fronted by a beach. During the project period the Dawlish beach levels exposed a concreate toe at the base of the wall. In Penzance, the beach covered the sea wall toe and was higher in the southwest monitoring location. The system was designed at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and had previously been validated in HR Wallingford’s flume facility and field tested with Sefton Council (https://www.channelcoast.org/northwest/). During CreamT, three different system configurations were deployed: full WireWall systems each with an array of six capacitance sensors; smaller WireWand systems with two capacitance sensors mounted on a single pole to detect overtopping at hazard hotspots; and a WaveWell using a single sensor on the face of the sea wall. Six datasets are available from the CreamT project. These contain delayed mode data from: 1) a WireWall deployed at the crest of the sea wall in Dawlish; 2) a WireWand deployed at the wall just seaward of the railway line in Dawlish; 3) a WireWand deployed at the fence just inland of the railway line in Dawlish; 4) a WaveWell deployed on the face of the sea wall in Dawlish; 5) a WireWall deployed at the crest of the sea wall in Penzance near Queen’s Hotel, and; 6) a WireWall deployed at the crest of the sea wall in Penzance near the Lidal store at Wherrytown. The datasets in Dawlish provide information about the inland distribution of overtopping, and the two datasets in Penzance provide information about the alongshore variability in overtopping hazard. These data can be used alongside the regional monitoring data available from the Southwest Regional Monitoring Programme to investigate the drivers of wave overtopping. All these data can be visualised in a hazard dashboard developed by the BODC and hosted on JASMIN, https://coastalhazards.app.noc.ac.uk/. This project was delivered by the National Oceanography Centre in collaboration with BODC and the University of Plymouth under NERC Grant References NE/V002538/1 and NE/V002589/1. Project partners were Network Rail, Southwest Regional Monitoring Programme, Environment Agency and Channel Coastal Observatory.
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This dataset contains CTD, chlorophyll, and phytoplankton abundance and biomass data gathered through analysis of discrete water samples collected from multiple sailings of the RV Callista. The data were collected offshore of Falmouth, UK to explore the seasonally stratified waters of the Western English Channel in June and July 2013. Discrete water samples were taken with CTD profiles to examine the phytoplankton communities of subsurface chlorophyll maxima. Phytoplankton taxa/groups were identified, counted, and converted to a measure of biomass to analyse phyotplankton communities to determine if subsurface chlorophyll maximum thin layers (<5m thick) have a distinct phytoplankton community structure to that of broader maxima. The data were collected by Michelle Barnett as part of her PhD study funded by the Graduate School of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
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Multibeam bathymetry data were collected in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), Northeast Pacific Ocean, using a hull-mounted Kongsberg EM122 multibeam echosounder during RRS James Cook Cruise JC241 from 06/02/2023 to 25/03/2023, and JC257 from 08/02/2024 to 19/03/2024. Data acquisition began upon exiting the Costa Rican Econoic Exclusion Zone (EEZ), suspended within the Clipperton Island EEZ, and resumed upon exiting the Clipperton Island EEZ. Data were then acquired throughout the CCZ. This suspension was repeated on the return journey. The data were recorded using Kongsberg’s Seafloor Information System (SIS) in .all format, and CTD and model-derived sound velocity profiles were subsequently applied. The data were manually cleaned using swath and subset editors in CARIS HIPS and SIPS software version 10.4. A zero tide file was also applied. The data were collected to obtain a better insight in the biodiversity patterns and benthic habitat distributions within the CCZ, by scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK as part of the NERC-funded Seabed Mining And Resilience To EXperimental impact (SMARTEX) project (NE/T003537/1).
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This dataset provides modelled storm surge and total water levels along the South China Sea region (coastline of China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand) for the period 1980-2050. Three return period scenarios are considered: 10% AEP (Annual Exceedance Probability) = 1:10 year return period; 1% AEP = 1:100 year return period; 0.1% AEP = 1:1000 year return period. Projections utilise Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 – the greenhouse gas concentration trajectory adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The dataset was produced by forcing a hydrodynamic model underpinned by a new synthetic database representing 10,000 years of past, present and future tropical cyclone activity. The aim of this exercise being to estimate the risks posed by extreme sea levels, especially in tropical regions where cyclones can generate large storm surges and observations are too limited in time and space to deliver reliable analyses. The dataset was produced by Principal Investigators Dr Ivan D Haigh and Dr Melissa Wood (School of Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, UK) in collaboration with partners from the School of Geography and Environmental Science (University of Southampton, UK), Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research (University of East Anglia, UK), Southern Institute of Water Resource Research (Vietnam) and the Institute for Environmental Studies (Netherlands). Funding was secured through the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Grant ‘CompFlood’ (grant number NE/S003150/1).
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Multibeam swath bathymetry data were collected with a hull-mounted Kongsberg EM122 echosounder during RRS James Cook cruise JC215 (Principal Investigator Helen Oldridge) in June/July 2021. The cruise was conducted to carry out geophysical equipment trials off the continental margin to the southwest of the UK. The data were edited using CARIS HIPS software by Tim Henstock and exported as generic sensor format (GSF) files for subsequent gridding by users. The data were also gridded at 100m spacing by Tim Henstock in a WGS84 Mercator projection, and were exported as longitude-latitude-depth triples. Funding was provided by the UK's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to National Marine Facilities (NMF) under its National Capability Large Research Infrastructure support.
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The Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) Observatory is a sustained, multidisciplinary observatory. Key time-series datasets include measurements of sea temperature, air temperature, air pressure, waves, wind, CO2, salinity, Megafauna (Species diversity, abundance and biomass), geochemistry, humidity, chlorophyll, nitrate, PAR and currents. The PAP observatory is situated in the Northeast Atlantic away from the continental slope and mid Atlantic ridge (49N,16.5W, depth 4800m). Since 1989, this environmental study site in the Northeast Atlantic has become a major focus for international and interdisciplinary scientific research and monitoring including water column biogeochemistry, physics and benthic biology. Since 2002, a mooring has been in place with sensors taking a diverse set of biogeochemical and physical measurements of the upper 1000m of the water column. Some of these data are transmitted in near real-time via satellite. A diverse range of Essential Climate variables are measured and sampled at the PAP site from the atmosphere and surface ocean to the seafloor. The instruments used include CTD + Backscatter; ADCP (2 way, re-programmable for water profiling as well as burst sampling), Seismometer (2 way, retrieval of selected time period - 1 Minute - in the past e.g. seismic event), Bottom Pressure Sensor, Sediment trap (2 way, re-programmable for change sampling interval), Boxcores, Mega- and Multicores, Optode, Digital Camera and Stand-alone hydrophone. Seafloor sampling includes trawling, coring, towed camera systems from a research ship and time-lapse photography. Since 2002 many of the upper ocean measurements (0-1000m) have been transmitted in near real-time. There is a growing need for ever more accurate climatic models to predict future climate change and the impact this will have on human settlement, the insurance industry, fisheries, agriculture and nature at large. Long term observations at fixed points in the open oceans are essential to provide high quality and high resolution data to increase our knowledge of how our oceans function, how they are changing and how this may impact on the climate. The observatory is coordinated by the National Oceanography Centre. In 2010, a collaboration between NERC and UK Met Office has led to the first atmospheric measurements at the site.
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The Carbon Uptake and Seasonal Traits in Antarctic Remineralisation Depth (CUSTARD) data set comprises hydrographic data, including measurements of temperature, salinity and currents, complemented by bathymetric, meteorological and nutrient data. All the observational data from the project were collected at, and south of, the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Global Southern Ocean Array, located south-west of Chile. Data collection activities span from November 2018 to January 2020 over 3 cruises (DY096, DY111 and DY112). The main aim of the CUSTARD project is to quantify the seasonal drivers of carbon fluxes in a region of the Southern Ocean upper limb, and estimate how long different quantities of carbon are kept out of the atmosphere based on the water flow routes at the observed remineralisation depths. The lead grant was funded by the NERC grant reference NE/P021247/1 with child grants NE/P021328/1, NE/P021336/1, NE/P021263/1. NE/P021247/1 was held at the National Oceanography Centre, led by Adrian Martin. Child grants were lead by Mark Moore of University of Southampton, Simon Ussher of University of Plymouth and Dorothee Bakker of University of East Anglia respectively.
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Thorium isotope 234 particulate data collected from cruise DY111 in the South Pacific using a stand-alone pump suspended on a wire at set depths along the wire ranging down to 400 metres depths, the stand-alone pumps were fitted with a 53 micrometer mesh to collect particles which are then counted later in disintegrations per minute per litre using a beta counter. The sampling on the DY111 cruise occurred, in the South Pacific, during December 2019 and January 2020. The data have been quality controlled by the originator with data quality flags applied.
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The dataset comprises concentration of gas hydrates beneath the seabed, in the water column and, atmosphere along with the topography of the sea floor. Data were collected in the Arctic Ocean off the NorthWestern coast of Svalbard across the continental margin between 78 and 80 North and 4 and 11 East. The data were collected during cruise JR211 which, over two legs, took place between 23rd August 2008 and 24th September 2008. Geophysical and geological techniques were used to detect methane hydrate beneath the seafloor and to investigate features trough which methane escapes to the seafloor. The seabed was imaged and mapped using a multibeam sonar (Simrad EM120), an echosounder (Simrad EK60), TOBI deep-towed sidescan sonar (30 kHz), widescan sidescan sonar (100 and 350 kHz). The sedimentary layers and geological structures beneath the seabed were imaged with the 7 kHz profiler in TOBI, a TOPAS sub-bottom acoustic profiler and multichannel seismic reflaction (96 channels with 6.25 m group spacing) using two air guns in true GI mode 45/105 cu.in. More accurate information on seismic velocity was obtained by deploying ocean-bottom seismometers on the seabed which contained 3 Sercel L-28 4.5 Hz geophones and a High Tech HTI-90-U hydrophone. Sediment samples were obtained using a piston corer, a gravity corer and, a box corer. Water chemistry was measured from discrete samples taken from bottles attached to the conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensor package and continuously from the ship's seawater supply. Methane concentration was measured on-board using a headspace technique. Air samples were collected at 12 hour intervals. Sampling occurred on the Navigation Bridge deck and the side of the ship upwind of the ships emissions was chosen each time. Additional samples were also collected close to the ship's funnel, to check for contamination, and from the gas released by the cores when in an inert atmosphere (N2). Analysis of methane mixing ratio is performed by Gas Chromatography - Flame Ionisation Detector (GC-FID) and the stable carbon isotopic composition of methane is analysed using a continuous flow Gas Chromatography - Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (GC-IRMS) system. Almost half of the Earth's carbon is stored in gas hydrates and related shallow gas deposits. Numerical models predict that this reservoir is highly mobile and that escaping gas has a significant potential to accelerate climate change releasing as much as 2000 Gt of methane over a short period of time. As methane is a potent greenhouse gas it would course further global warming. Arctic gas hydrates are most vulnerable to future climate change because (1) it is predicted that temperatures will increase faster in the Arctic than in low latitudes (2) the intercept of the gas hydrate stability zone with the seabed is within the reach of fast warming surface waters and (3) the water column above the vulnerable zone of gas hydrates is smaller than in warmer oceans facilitating more efficient transport of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. This information will allow a detailed assessment of the mobility of Arctic gas hydrates and it will significantly decrease the uncertainties involved in climate modelling. The data were collected by the National Oceanographic Centre, Southampton with Professor Tim Minshull as the principal scientist on-board.
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The dataset comprises chlorophyll-a concentrations from water samples taken during RRS James Clark Ross cruise JR291, from 12/11/2013 - 19/12/2013. The cruise sailed from Stanley, Falklands, and returned to the same port. 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. 170 samples were collected from the ship’s uncontaminated underway supply, with an intake at approximately 6.5 m depth, every two hours during transit periods. 74 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 Milli-Q 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 collected by Elena Ceballos-Romero (University of Sevilla), Frédéric Le Moigne (NOC) and Anna Belcher (NOC). Chlorophyll samples were analysed at the National Oceanography centre in Southampton by Anna Belcher from NOC.