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    • Physical Oceanographic (Water Temperature and Conductivity) Data

    Metadata Updated: October 21, 2025

    NOAA's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) is the authoritative source for accurate, reliable, and timely data on tides, water levels, currents, as well as other coastal oceanographic and meteorological information. The center maintains and operates the National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON), a national network of Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Systems (PORTS) in major U. S. harbors, and the National Current Observation Program consisting of current surveys in near shore and coastal areas utilizing bottom mounted platforms, subsurface buoys, horizontal sensors and quick response real time buoys. Among the collection are real-time and historic water temperature and conductivity observations across U.S. coastlines. These Physical Oceanographic data are crucial for safe navigation, as it impacts ocean density and circulation patterns, and for assessing the health of coastal flora and fauna, as many species are sensitive to rapid changes in temperature and salinity. The integration of continuously-recording water temperature thermistors into the NWLON and PORTS since the 1990s. The standard reporting time for collecting data are in 6-minute intervals.

    Access & Use Information

    License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Date October 17, 2025
    Metadata Created Date October 21, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date October 21, 2025
    Reference Date(s) January 1, 1990 (creation), 2025 (publication)
    Frequency Of Update continual

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NOS CO-OPS

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Date October 17, 2025
    Metadata Created Date October 21, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date October 21, 2025
    Reference Date(s) January 1, 1990 (creation), 2025 (publication)
    Responsible Party (Point of Contact, Custodian)
    Contact Email
    Guid gov.noaa.nmfs.inport:78409
    Access Constraints Cite As: Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services, [Date of Access]: Physical Oceanographic (Water Temperature and Conductivity) Data [Data Date Range], https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/78409., Access Constraints: None, Use Constraints: Preliminary Data Preliminary data have not been subjected to the National Ocean Service's quality control or quality assurance procedures and do not meet the criteria and standards of official National Ocean Service data. They are released for limited public use as preliminary data to be used only with appropriate caution., Distribution Liability: The CORMS (Continuous Operational Real-Time Monitoring System), a team of analysts available 24-7 to monitor the system with a set of automated tools, provides quality control and assurance for all of CO-OPS's real-time data, systems, and web products including the physical oceanographic data. There are maximum, minimum, and rate of change (RoC) limits that serve as coarse thresholds to flag egregious outliers in the data. These values are primarily used for an initial real-time quality control (QC) process and are not typically fine-tuned. When CORMS detects erroneous data indicative of sensor problems or failure, they flag data from that sensor, sometimes removing it from the real time data availability, and notify other responsible parties within CO-OPS for further investigation. In some cases, CORMS may switch to an alternative (for water temperature sensors collecting data on a secondary Data Collection Platform, if available. Preliminary data have not been subjected to the National Ocean Service's quality control or quality assurance procedures and do not meet the criteria and standards of official National Ocean Service data. They are released for limited public use as preliminary data to be used only with appropriate caution.
    Bbox East Long -61.8
    Bbox North Lat 71.4
    Bbox South Lat -14.3
    Bbox West Long 144.6
    Coupled Resource
    Frequency Of Update continual
    Harvest Object Id 0a3e9369-979d-49cf-ad18-ce72b97670ed
    Harvest Source Id 217272a2-c20f-4b9e-a0e1-e42a6d539971
    Harvest Source Title NOS CO-OPS
    Licence NOAA provides no warranty, nor accepts any liability occurring from any incomplete, incorrect, or misleading data, or from any incorrect, incomplete, or misleading use of the data. It is the responsibility of the user to determine whether or not the data is suitable for the intended purpose.
    Lineage Data are recorded and transmitted, stored into a cloud based database and then go through a quality control procedure and disseminated to the public in real-time.
    Metadata Language eng
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[144.6, -14.3], [-61.8, -14.3], [-61.8, 71.4], [144.6, 71.4], [144.6, -14.3]]]}
    Progress onGoing
    Spatial Data Service Type
    Spatial Reference System
    Spatial Harvester True
    Temporal Extent Begin 1990

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