Maritimes Region Barrow Strait Monitoring Program Moored Time Series Data
The Barrow Strait flow observational program started in 1998 and continued for 13 years to 2012. This was followed by the Barrow Strait Real Time Observatory Project until 2016, afterwards the project is a combination of both projects and called Maritimes Region Barrow Strait Monitoring Program.
Barrow Strait is the widest of the 4 passages through the Canadian Archipelago making it an important monitoring location. The program explores the magnitude and variability of freshwater, heat and volume transports through the eastern Northwest Passage. The data measured included: profile CTD and time series temperature, salinity, density, currents, ice draft and ice drift velocity. The time series data collected was used to quantify the freshwater discharge from the Arctic Ocean through Barrow Strait into the northwest Atlantic, and link variability in this freshwater outflow to large scale weather patterns. Annual analysis performed on the collected data include: low-pass filtering, power spectra, progressive vector diagram, tidal analyses, seasonal and monthly averaged stats, mean flow, and ice velocities. Data from the program, along with a description of the methods used, have been published annually up to 2015 in the Canadian Data Report of Hydrography and Ocean Sciences report number 190 to 195, 173, 167, 166, 165, 161, and 157.
An ocean observatory was installed at the eastern end of the Northwest Passage in 2009 to provide hourly ocean and ice conditions for use by mariners and climate modellers. Data from instrumented moorings are acoustically transmitted to a "data hub" at the offshore end of an underwater cable, sent through the cable, and then transmitted from the shore station by Iridium satellite for access on the web (https://www.bio.gc.ca/science/newtech-technouvelles/observatory-observatoire-en.php)
Data and resources
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CIOOS Atlantic ERDDAP dataset link for moored CTD dataERDDAP Open
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Fisheries and Oceans Canada website for the ocean observatory at the eastern end of the Northwest Passage providing hourly ocean and ice conditionsHTML Open
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National Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) archive for plankton and chemical dataHTML Open
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The Barrow Strait Real Time Observatory website streaming live dataHTML Open
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Canadian Data Report of Hydrography and Ocean Sciences 157PDF Open
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Canadian Data Report of Hydrography and Ocean Sciences 161PDF Open
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Canadian Data Report of Hydrography and Ocean Sciences 165PDF Open
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Canadian Data Report of Hydrography and Ocean Sciences 166PDF Open
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Canadian Data Report of Hydrography and Ocean Sciences 167PDF Open
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Canadian Data Report of Hydrography and Ocean Sciences 173PDF Open
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Canadian Data Report of Hydrography and Ocean Sciences 193PDF Open
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Canadian Data Report of Hydrography and Ocean Sciences 190PDF Open
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Canadian Data Report of Hydrography and Ocean Sciences 192PDF Open
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Canadian Data Report of Hydrography and Ocean Sciences 193PDF Open
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Canadian Data Report of Hydrography and Ocean Sciences 191PDF Open
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Canadian Data Report of Hydrography and Ocean Sciences 194PDF Open
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Canadian Data Report of Hydrography and Ocean Sciences 195PDF Open
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HTML Open
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publication, J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 118, 5625–5639, doi:10.1002/jgrc.20382.HTML Open
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publication: James M. Hamilton & Merle D. Pittman (2015): Sea-Ice Freeze-up Forecasts with an Operational Ocean Observatory, Atmosphere-Ocean, DOI:…HTML Open
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Publication: The Barrow Strait Real Time Observatory: Under-ice Monitoring in the Canadian High Arctic. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on…HTML Open
Additional information
| Temporal extent | 1998-08-01 – ongoing |
|---|---|
| Vertical extent | 1.0 – 250.0 m |
| Date (creation) | 1998-08-01 |
| Status | onGoing |
| Update frequency | asNeeded |
| Metadata language | en |
| License | government-open-license-canada |
| Source metadata | ISO 19115 XML |
| Last updated | 2026-09-04 |
| Created | 2026-09-04 |
| API | package_show |