British Columbia Lightstation Sea-Surface Temperature and Salinity Data (Pacific), 1914-present

Daily sea surface temperature and salinity observations have been carried out at several locations on the coast of British Columbia since the early part of the 20th century. Observations started at the Pacific Biological Station (Departure Bay) in 1914; 11 stations were added in the mid-1930s and several more in the 1960s. The number of stations reporting at any given time has varied as sampling has been discontinued at some stations and started or resumed at others.

Presently termed the British Columbia Shore Station Oceanographic Program (BCSOP), there are 12 active participating stations. Most of the stations are at lighthouses staffed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, but three (Race Rocks, Amphitrite Point, and Active Pass) are sampled by contracted observers.

Observations are made daily using seawater collected in a bucket lowered into the surface water at or near the daytime high tide. This sampling method was designed long ago by Dr. John P. Tully and has not been changed in the interests of a homogeneous data set. This means, for example, that if an observer starts sampling one day at 6 a.m., and continues to sample at the daytime high tide on the second day the sample will be taken at about 06:50 the next day, 07:40 the day after etc. When the daytime high-tide gets close to 6 p.m. the observer will then begin again to sample early in the morning, and the cycle continues. Since there is a day/night variation in the sea surface temperatures the daily time series will show a signal that varies with the14-day tidal cycle. This artifact does not affect the monthly sea surface temperature data.

Simple

Date ( RI_367 )
2017-04-04
Date ( RI_366 )
2017-03-31
Date ( RI_368 )
2018-07-10
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2019-02-20
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2020-10-14
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2021-02-03
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2021-05-14
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2021-11-24
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2021-12-23
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2022-06-10
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2023-03-06
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2023-08-15
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2023-11-23
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2024-07-24
Date ( RI_368 )
2025-04-04
RI_414
  Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada - Lu Guan ( Data Products Supervisor )
Institute of Ocean Sciences, PO Box 6000, 9860 West Saanich Road , Sidney , British Columbia , V8L 4B2 , Canada
RI_415
  Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Ecosystems and Ocean Science/Pacific Science/Ocean Science Division - Jennifer Jackson ( Physical Scientist )
Institute of Ocean Sciences, PO Box 6000, 9860 West Saanich Road , Sidney , British Columbia , V8L 4B2 , Canada
Status
onGoing; enContinue RI_596
Maintenance and update frequency
quarterly; trimestriel RI_537
Keywords ( RI_525 )
  • Pacific
  • British Columbia
  • Vancouver Island
  • Haida Gwaii
Keywords ( RI_528 )
  • Sea Surface Temperature
  • Sea Surface Salinity
  • British Columbia Shore Station Oceanographic Program (BCSOP)
Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus Thésaurus des sujets de base du gouvernement du Canada ( RI_528 )
  • Climate archives
  • Scientific information
  • Oceans
  • Oceanography
  • Lighthouses
  • Climate
Classification
unclassified; nonClassifié RI_484
Use limitation
Open Government Licence - Canada (http://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada)
Access constraints
license; licence RI_606
Use constraints
license; licence RI_606
Spatial representation type
textTable; texteTable RI_637
Metadata language
eng
Metadata language
fra
Character set
utf8; utf8 RI_458
Topic category
  • Oceans
Begin date
1914-01-01
End date
2024-12-31
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W
thumbnail


Reference system identifier
https://epsg.io / EPSG:4326 /
Distribution format
  • CSV ( N/A )

    File decompression technique
    ZIP

  • ESRI REST ( 2.0 )

  • SHP ( 1.0 )

    File decompression technique
    ZIP

RI_412
  Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Pacific Science/Ecosystems and Ocean Science/Ocean Science Division - Lu Guan ( Data Products Supervisor )
Institute of Ocean Sciences, PO Box 6000, 9860 West Saanich Road , Sidney , British Columbia , V8L 4B2 , Canada
250-363-6394
OnLine resource
BC Lightstations and Other Sample Sites ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;CSV;eng

OnLine resource
Data Dictionary ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;PDF;eng,fra

OnLine resource
DATA - In-Active Sites ( HTTPS )

Dataset;CSV;eng

OnLine resource
DATA - Active Sites ( HTTPS )

Dataset;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
BC Lightstations and Other Sample Sites ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;CSV;fra

OnLine resource
DATA - Archived Sites ( HTTPS )

Dataset;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
DATA - BC Lightstations and Other Sample Sites ( HTTPS )

Dataset;SHP;eng

OnLine resource
DATA - BC Lightstations and Other Sample Sites ( HTTPS )

Dataset;SHP;fra

OnLine resource
BC Lightstations and Other Sample Sites ( ESRI REST: Map Service )

Web Service;ESRI REST;eng

OnLine resource
BC Lightstations and Other Sample Sites ( ESRI REST: Map Service )

Web Service;ESRI REST;fra

File identifier
719955f2-bf8e-44f7-bc26-6bd623e82884 XML
Metadata language
eng; CAN
Character set
utf8; utf8 RI_458
Hierarchy level
dataset; jeuDonnées RI_622
Date stamp
2025-04-10T18:52:49.519Z
Metadata standard name
North American Profile of ISO 19115:2003 - Geographic information - Metadata
Metadata standard version
CAN/CGSB-171.100-2009
RI_409
  Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Ecosystems and Ocean Science/Pacific Science/Ocean Science Division - Guan Lu ( Data Products Supervisor )
Institute of Ocean Sciences, PO Box 6000, 9860 West Saanich Road , Sidney , British Columbia , V8L 4B2 , Canada
 
 

Overviews

overview
Lighthouse Thumbnail

Spatial extent

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Keywords


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Associated resources

Not available