Seawater temperature records for the UK Shelf - 10 - Citizen Science Diver Recorded Temperatures

This dataset has been extracted as part of an exercise to assemble "all" Cefas Temperature Data and publish it in a Data paper. It is one of 17 Cefas data sources assembled.

This data source differs from the others in this collection because it arises from an investigation into the potential for Citizen Science to contribute to assessments of the marine environment. The dataset is derived from a database containing over 7,000 records of temperature data collected from temperature compensated dive computers. The lowest temperature is recorded from the thermal sensor. The unprocessed data were then subjected to a quality control process that compared the temperature with the relevant sea surface temperature (obtained from OSTIA – Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Ice Analysis – http://ghrsst–pp.metoffice.com/pages/latest_analysis/ostia.html_).

There was a linear correlation between the sea surface temperature and the recorded temperature at depth. Values exceeding a specified difference from the surface temperature (5°C) were excluded. This resulted in a quality assured dataset of just over 5,000 records (including freshwater and lake data). The subset of global dataset provided covers the UK shelf.

The 5°C threshold is derived from previous analyses of the performance of dive computers.

.. _http://ghrsst–pp.metoffice.com/pages/latest_analysis/ostia.html: http://ghrsst-pp.metoffice.com/pages/latest_analysis/ostia.html