Current meter records from MOVE
(the Meridional Overturning Variability Experiment)

Click here to download a zip archive that contains the current meter records. To see metadata and statistics click on the links in the rightmost column below. You can go here to move up one level.

MOVE began in 2000 and extends through the present. We will make the current meter records available here as we process them.

We note that almost all of the files contain pressure and temperature time series. With regard to the temperatures, the original files contain the warning "Temperature data may have poor accuracy because of infrequent (if any) sensor calibration." There is a similar warning with regard to pressure calibrations. The seafloor depths given below for MOVE 1 and MOVE 2 are from the ETOPO5 database. ETOPO5 gives depths for MOVE 3 and MOVE 4 that are clearly too shallow (shallower than the deepest instruments at both moorings), so we have guessed and set at MOVE 3 and MOVE 4 at 5000 meters and 3000 meters respectively.

We note also that many of the records come from Aanderaa RCM 8 instruments. These instruments have a linear speed calibration of the form speed = a + bx, where a and b are constants and x is proportional to the speed at which the sensor rotor turns. When x goes to 0 (i.e., when the current speed goes below the instrument's threshold) most who work with Aanderaa data choose to set speed = a or speed = 1/2 a. UCSD, however, has set speed = 0 in most of these cases. This, of course, produces u = 0 and v = 0, which makes current direction undefined. But UCSD's files contain well-defined nonzero directions throughout. Since the files we are presenting here contain direction as well as u and v we are warning you here to be aware of this anomaly.