Nansen-bottle stations at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Nansen-bottle stations were occupied by ships and personnel of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from 1931 to about 1981. Most of these data are in archives, but using them intelligently to depict the state of the ocean and to assess time changes in it requires knowing how the observations were made, what accuracies can be assigned to them, and generally how to approach them. This report describes the evolving methods on Woods Hole stations for measuring temperature, depth of observation, salinity, and dissolved-oxygen concentration, and for determining station position. Accuracies generally improved over time, although estimates from the early years are sparse, and even later there is indefiniteness. Analytical error is to be distinguished from sloppy sample collection and other blunders. The routine for carrying out Nansen-bottle stations, from the late 1950s through the 1970s, is reviewed.