Metadata for Long-Term Oceanographic Observations in Massachusetts Bay, 1989-2006

• Identification_Information
• Data_Quality_Information
• Metadata_Reference_Information

Return to Title Page of U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 74

Identification_Information:

Citation:

Citation_Information:

Originator: Bradford Butman

Originator: P.S. Dalyander

Originator: M.H. Bothner

Originator: Jonathan Borden

Originator: M.A. Casso

Originator: B.T. Gutierrez

Originator: M.E. Hastings

Originator: F.S. Lightsom

Originator: M.A. Martini

Originator: E.T. Montgomery

Originator: R.R. Rendigs

Originator: W.S. Strahle

Publication_Date: 2009

Title:

Long-Term Oceanographic Observations in Massachusetts Bay, 1989-2006

Publication_Information:

Publication_Place: Reston, VA

Publisher: U.S. Geological Survey

Online_Linkage: <https://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/74/>

Description:

Abstract:

This data report presents long-term oceanographic observations made in western Massachusetts Bay at long-term site LT-A (42° 22.6' N., 70&° 47.0' W.; nominal water depth 32 meters) from December 1989 through February 2006 and long-term site B LT-B (42° 9.8' N., 70° 38.4' W.; nominal water depth 22 meters) from October 1997 through February 2004. The observations were collected as part of a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study designed to understand the transport and long-term fate of sediments and associated contaminants in Massachusetts Bay. The observations include time-series measurements of current, temperature, salinity, light transmission, pressure, oxygen, fluorescence, and sediment-trapping rate. About 160 separate mooring or tripod deployments were made on about 90 research cruises to collect these long-term observations. This report presents a description of the 16-year field program and the instrumentation used to make the measurements, an overview of the data set, more than 2,500 pages of statistics and plots that summarize the data, and the digital data in Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) format.
This research was conducted by the USGS in cooperation with the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Purpose:

The long-term oceanographic observations were designed to understand the transport and long-term fate of sediments and associated contaminants in Massachusetts Bay. LT-A is located approximately 1 km south of the new ocean outfall that began discharging treated sewage effluent from the Boston metropolitan area into Massachusetts Bay on September 6, 2000. LT-B is located about 28 km southeast of the new outfall in the direction of the mean current in Massachusetts Bay. The observations document sediment resuspension and transport, and seasonal and inter-annual changes in currents, hydrography, and suspended-matter concentration. They also provide observations for testing numerical models of circulation and transport.
This report presents a description of the 16-year field program and the instrumentation used to make the measurements, an overview of the data set, more than 2,500 pages of statistics and plots that summarize the data, and the digital data in Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) format. This report includes all data collected from December 1989 through February 2006, and updates and replaces Butman and others (2004), which presented the data collected from December 1989 through December 2002.

Time_Period_of_Content:

Time_Period_Information:

Range_of_Dates/Times:

Beginning_Date: 1989

Ending_Date: 2006

Currentness_Reference: Publication Date

Status:

Progress: Complete

Maintenance_and_Update_Frequency: None

Spatial_Domain:

Bounding_Coordinates:

West_Bounding_Coordinate: -071.000000

East_Bounding_Coordinate: -070.500000

North_Bounding_Coordinate: +42.500000

South_Bounding_Coordinate: +42.000000

Keywords:

Theme:

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: None

Theme_Keyword: Oceanographic observations

Theme_Keyword: Current

Theme_Keyword: Temperature

Theme_Keyword: Salinity

Theme_Keyword: Light transmission

Theme_Keyword: Beam attenuation

Theme_Keyword: Pressure

Theme_Keyword: Sediment-trapping rate

Theme_Keyword: Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP)

Theme_Keyword: Oxygen

Theme_Keyword: Fluorescence

Place:

Place_Keyword_Thesaurus: None

Place_Keyword: Massachusetts Bay

Place_Keyword: Massachusetts

Place_Keyword: Boston Massachusetts

Place_Keyword: Massachusetts Water Resources Authority ocean outfall

Place_Keyword: Western Massachusetts Bay

Place_Keyword: Gulf of Maine

Temporal:

Temporal_Keyword_Thesaurus: None

Temporal_Keyword: 1989-2006

Access_Constraints:

These data were prepared by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, make any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this report, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference therein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. Any views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. Although all data have been used by the USGS, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the USGS as to the accuracy of the data and/or related materials. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS in the use of these data or related materials.

Use_Constraints:

These data were prepared by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, make any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this report, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference therein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. Any views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. Although all data have been used by the USGS, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the USGS as to the accuracy of the data and/or related materials. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS in the use of these data or related materials.
These data have been edited to remove wild points and data recorded when the instruments were out of the water before and after deployment.
Biological fouling often degrades light transmission data after several months of deployment. Organisms grow on the transmissometer lenses and gradually block light transmission, which results in a gradual increase of the beam-attenuation coefficient. This drift occurs more quickly and is more severe at shallower depths. The attenuation data plots have not been corrected for biological fouling and should be interpreted with care.
Salinity measured by instruments on tripods during 1989-1996, were erroneously low by as much as one practical salinity unit by the end of the 4-month deployments, due to fouling of the conductivity cells. Tripod conductivity data apparently were affected by a slow, gradual build-up of a biological film on the electrodes and also occasional sudden depositions of a significant volume of material (possibly sediments) inside the measurement volume of the conductivity cell. In June 1996 (mooring 470), Sea-Bird pumps were added to the MIDAS to flush the conductivity cell prior to making a measurement, reducing the effect of deposits on the conductivity measurements. The salinity data should be used and interpreted with care.

Point_of_Contact:

Contact_Information:

Contact_Person_Primary:

Contact_Person: Bradford Butman

Contact_Organization: U.S. Geological Survey

Contact_Address:

Address_Type: mailing and physical address

Address:

U.S. Geological Survey Woods Hole Science Center 384 Woods Hole Road

City: Woods Hole

State_or_Province: Massachusetts

Postal_Code: 02543-1598

Contact_Voice_Telephone: 508 457 2212

Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: bbutman@usgs.gov

Hours_of_Service: 9 am - 5 pm

Data_Set_Credit:

Citation
Butman, Bradford, Dalyander, P.S., Bothner, M.H., Borden, Jonathan, Casso, Michael, Gutierrez, B.T., Hastings, M.E., Lightsom, F.S., Martini, M.A., Montgomery, Ellyn, Rendigs, R.R., and Strahle, W.S., 2009, Long-Term Oceanographic Observations in Massachusetts Bay, 1989-2006: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 74, Version 3.0, DVD-ROM. Also available online at <https://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/74/>
Acknowledgments
For their outstanding logistical support in collecting the oceanographic data in this report, we thank crews of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutters White Heath and Marcus Hanna and their captains Michael Frias, Buddy Blackburn, Vernon Shay, Peter Boardman, Richard Foy, Thomas Dickey, and Paul Dupuis. The USGS and the USCG safely conducted more than 90 cruises to deploy and recover hundreds of individual instruments on about 160 separate moorings to obtain this long-term data set. Mike Bothner was chief scientist on the USCG cruises. Fran Lightsom, Mary Hastings, and Ellyn Montgomery processed the time-series data. William Strahle, Marinna Martini, and Jonathan Borden oversaw the preparation and deployment of the physical oceanographic instrumentation. Michael Casso and Rick Rendigs oversaw collection and analysis of the the sediment-trap data. Ben Gutierrez helped in the preparation of version 1 of this report. Dann Blackwood took many of the photographs in this report. Bob Barton, Dann Blackwood, Jon Borden, Michael Casso, Jessica Cote, Ray Davis, Peter Gill, Joe Newell, Carol Parmenter, Andre Ramsey, Rick Rendigs, Steve Ruane, and Richard Signell carried out the work at sea, ashore, and in the laboratory. Rick Rendigs, Dan Blackwood, Larry Ball, Steve Cross, and Ken Parolski aided in the successful recovery of several bottom tripod systems by diving when the primary recovery system failed. Donna Newman and Jennifer Martin did the html coding. Mike Connor, Ken Keay, Wendy Leo, Mike Mickelson, and Andrea Rex provided guidance from MWRA. Neil Ganju and Erin Twomey (USGS) provided helpful reviews of this report. Frank Marachi, captain of the fishing vessel Christopher Andrew, provided assistance and valuable local knowledge on a number of cruises.
This research was partially supported by a Cooperative Research Agreement between the U.S. Geological Survey and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and by an Interagency Support Agreement with the U.S. Coast Guard.

Data_Quality_Information:

Logical_Consistency_Report: Data is logically consistent

Completeness_Report: Data set is complete

Lineage:

Process_Step:

Process_Description: See <https://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/74/>

Process_Date: 2006

Process_Contact:

Contact_Information:

Contact_Person_Primary:

Contact_Person: Ellyn Montgomery

Contact_Organization: U.S. Geological Survey

Contact_Address:

Address_Type: mailing and physical address

Address:

U.S. Geological Survey Woods Hole Science Center 384 Woods Hole Road

City: Woods Hole

State_or_Province: MA

Postal_Code: 02543-1598

Contact_Voice_Telephone: 508-457-2356

Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: emontgomery@usgs.gov

Hours_of_Service: 9 am - 5 pm

Metadata_Reference_Information:

Metadata_Date: 2008

Metadata_Review_Date: 2008

Metadata_Contact:

Contact_Information:

Contact_Person_Primary:

Contact_Person: Bradford Butman

Contact_Organization: U.S. Geological Survey

Contact_Address:

Address_Type: mailing and physical address

Address:

U.S. Geological Survey Woods Hole Science Center 384 Woods Hole Road

City: Woods Hole

State_or_Province: MA

Postal_Code: 02543-1598

Contact_Voice_Telephone: 508 457 2212

Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: bbutman@usgs.gov

Metadata_Standard_Name: FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata

Metadata_Standard_Version: FGDC-STD-001-1998