New Ocean Bottom Pressure Pages

20 Aug 2014

Today, we have made live a new section of the website devoted to ocean bottom pressure (OBP) records. OBP recorders measure the total pressure due to both the water column above the sensor as well as the atmosphere. These records can be used to study tides, ocean dynamics, and exchange of water between the continents and the ocean.

With a recent grant from the UK Natural Environment Research Council, the PSMSL is working to provide data from in situ OBP recorders. This initial release contains data from the National Oceanography Centre's Drake Passage deployments, ten tsunameters archived at the National Data Buoy Center, and a collection of records from the north-east Atlantic provided by Prof. Wendell S. Brown.

The initial focus of our effort is on longer records (a year or more) and frequently occupied locations. The best record in this respect is the NOC's 19-year-long record at a southern location in the Drake Passage. However, the data provided by Prof. Brown illustrates another important aspect of the effort: improving the availability of historic data. While most of the records in this data set are short in length, they previously had not been easily available. We want to help ensure that such data sets are not lost.

Please send a message to psmsl@noc.ac.uk with any question or comments regarding this new data set.