GAK1 Mooring Timeseries data, Seward, AK, from the GAK1 project, 2016-2017, Gulf Watch Alaska Environmental Drivers Component

This data is part of the Gulf Watch Alaska (GWA), Environmental Drivers component of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, project numbers 12120114P, 13120114P, 14120114P, 15120114P, 16120114P. Gulf Watch Alaska is the long-term ecosystem monitoring program of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council for the marine ecosystem affected by the 1989 oil spill. The GAK1 project continues a 46-year time series of temperature and salinity measurements at hydrographic station GAK1. GAK1, which began in 1970, now consists of monthly CTDs and a year-round mooring with 6-7 temperature/conductivity recorders distributed throughout the water column. The project provides information on 3 important Alaska Coastal Current ecosystem parameters that allow quantifying and understanding interannual and longer period variability: temperature and salinity throughout the 250 m deep water column, near-surface stratification, and atmosphere-ocean heat fluxes. In aggregate these variables are basic descriptors of the Alaska Coastal Current, an important habitat and migratory corridor for organisms inhabiting the northern Gulf of Alaska, including Prince William Sound. Data here spans 1970-2015. The sampling occurs at 59° 50.7' N, 149° 28.0' W and is located within the Alaska Coastal Current and is connected with the inner Gulf of Alaska shelf circulation. This dataset has been archived in ASCII-formatted .dat files. For archival purposes, .dat files have been compressed into 4 .zip packages: GAK1_2012_2013_mooring.zip, GAK1_2013_2014_mooring.zip, GAK1_2014_2015_mooring.zip, GAK1_2015_2016_mooring.zip. In turn, each of these .zip packages contains 6-7 .dat files from each deployment year 2012-2016, with one file for each temperature/conductivity recorder distributed throughout the water column. For example, there are six 2012 .dat files in GAK1_2012_2013_mooring.zip: GAK1_2012_30m.dat, GAK1_2012_60m.dat, GAK1_2012_100m.dat, GAK1_2012_150m.dat, GAK1_2012_200m.dat, GAK1_2012_250m.dat. Each .dat file describes the date and time of sampling and provides measurements of pressure, depth, temperature, conductivity, and practical salinity. All .dat files have a header providing additional metadata beyond what is provided in this record.