A 28-year-long (1997–2024) hydrographic dataset from the southern Baltic Sea

Abstract

The data set presented here consists of Conductivity–Temperature–Depth (CTD) observations collected during 96 research cruises of R/V Oceania across the southern Baltic Sea between 1997 and 2024. The collection comprises towed and vertical station profiles acquired along a repeat transect spanning the Arkona Basin, Bornholm Basin, Słupsk Furrow, and Gdańsk Basin. Acquisition and post-processing procedures include standardized parsing of CNV/TXT files, robust time/position handling, pressure-binning to 1 dbar, median filtering, automated geolocation quality control, and pruning of incomplete profiles. The dataset enables analyses of seasonal to decadal variability in temperature and salinity, inflow propagation, ventilation events, and model validation. Manufacturer specifications for the principal instruments (Guildline 87104, Idronaut OS316/OS316Plus, Sea-Bird SBE49, Sea-Bird SBE19plus) are summarized to inform uncertainty assessment. The dataset is publicly available from IOPAN GeoNetwork (Rak, 2025b; https://doi.org/10.48457/IOPAN.2025.531), while the processing and CF-1.8 NetCDF export scripts are available from Zenodo (Rak, 2025a; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17814769).