The data set includes hydrographic profiles (including temperature, salinity, attenuance, chlorophyll, oxygen, irradiance, turbulence, sound velocity and currents), hydrographic time series (temperature, currents, fluorescence, bottom pressure), water samples (>70 parameters measured), sediment samples (>160 parameters measured), sediment trap samples (>10 parameters measured), production experiments and marine snow camera profiles. Additional meteorological and wave records are also available, as well as satellite imagery and underwater photography (water column and seabed). The data were collected on the Hebridean Slope (NW of Ireland) between March 1995 and September 1996. Measurements were collected via a combination of shipboard instrument deployments, including >1,800 conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) and SeaSoar (undulating oceanographic recorder) profiles, >100 expendable bathythermograph (XBT) profiles, >38,000 acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) profiles, >35 core profiles, >800 turbulence profiles, >40 marine snow camera profiles, >55 radiometer profiles and >25 sound velocity and travel time experiments. Benthic lander deployments were also undertaken, along with shipboard incubation experiments and drifting buoy deployments (48 tracks). An intensive water sampling programme provided >2,500 samples for biological and biogeochemical analysis. An extensive moored instrument array was maintained throughout the experiment, including sediment traps, recording current meters (104 series), electromagnetic current meters (9 series), ADCPs (16 series), thermistor chain and temperature probes (70 series), fluorometers (18 series), transmissometers (16 series), light meter (5 series), bottom pressure recorders (11 series), plus one waverider buoy series and three meteorological buoy time series. The Shelf Edge Study (SES) was an intensive multidisciplinary experiment and formed part of the NERC Land Ocean Interaction Study. The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) assembled over 95% of the data sets collected during SES into its project database system. Once basic quality control procedures had been completed the data set was published, complete with extensive data documentation, on CD-ROM.

This dataset includes physical, biological and biogeochemical measurements of both the water column and seabed sediments. Hydrographic data include temperature, salinity, attenuance, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), sound velocity and current velocities, while biogeochemical analyses of water samples provided measurements of nutrients and biological sampling provided measurements of zooplankton abundance. A large number of benthic parameters were measured, including concentrations of substances such as nutrients, metals and carbon in both sediments and sediment pore waters. Benthic fauna were also studied, while rates of sedimentation flux were quantified. These oceanographic and benthic data were supplemented by satellite ocean colour imagery. The data were collected in the North Atlantic Ocean at the Mouth of Rockall Trough, Hatton-Rockall Basin and the Flank of Feni Drift between August 1997 and June 1999 over four cruises, comprising a preliminary site assessment (CD 107 August, 1997) followed by two process cruises (CD 111, April-May 1998, and CD 113, June-July 1998). A further cruise (CH 143) was part-funded by BENBO to retrieve moorings. The data were collected using a variety of instrumentation, including shipboard deployment of conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) profilers with attached auxiliary sensors, benthic samplers, landers, cameras and incubation chambers, water samplers and continuous underway sensors. These were supplemented by moored sensor and satellite data. The BENBO programme was led by the Scottish Association for Marine Science/Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory involved researchers from Southampton Oceanography Centre, Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Lancaster University, Leeds University, Edinburgh University, Cambridge University and the University of Wales, Bangor.

The dataset contains physical, biological and chemical oceanographic measurements, and meteorological data. Hydrographic measurements include temperature, salinity, current velocities, attenuance, dissolved oxygen and fluorescence, while water samples were analysed for concentrations of nutrients, pigments, suspended particulates, metals and halocarbons. Samples were also collected for phytoplankton and zooplankton analyses, while results from production experiments are also included in the data set. These oceanographic data are supplemented by surface meteorological measurements. The data were collected at 357 sites in the NE Atlantic, 308 of which are from cruises centering on 20 W, 47 to 60 N, 16 from the Cape Verde Islands and 33 in a coccolithophore bloom just south of Iceland. Measurements were taken from 3 cruises in 1989, 6 cruises in 1990 and 2 cruises in 1991. The data were collected via (i) underway sampling (SeaSoar Undulating Oceanographic Recorder (UOR), hull-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP), meteorology and surface ocean parameters) of which there are 793430 records at 30 second intervals from 11 cruises and (ii) discrete sampling (conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) and expendable bathythermograph (XBT) casts, bottle stations, net hauls, productivity incubations, stand alone pump (SAP) and sediment trap deployments, cores) of which there are 2215 deployments/experiments. The aim of the Biogeochemical Ocean Flux Study (BOFS) Community Research Project was to study the role of oceans in the global cycling of carbon. The data were collected and supplied by UK participants in the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS). The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) had responsibility for calibrating, processing, quality controlling and documenting the data and assembling the final data set. The underway data are stored as time series for each cruise merged with the navigation data. The data are fully quality controlled. Checks were made for instrument malfunction, fouling, constant values, spikes, spurious values, calibration errors and baseline corrections. The discrete data are stored in a relational database (Oracle RDBMS), mainly as vertical profiles and are uniquely identified by a combination of deployment number and depth.