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Estimated chlorophyll-a, cruise-corrected

Est. chlorophyll-a cruise-corrected

µg/Lkey est_chlorophyll_a_cruise_corrP06 units UGPLseries est_chlorophyll_a_cruise_corr

CalCOFI holds 328,439 values of it from 9,490 sampling events in one dataset, 1993–2026, from the surface to 200 m. At 100–200 m it has fallen 0.90 per decade since 1993.R Every phytoplankter carries chlorophyll-a, so it is the standard measure of how much plant life the sunlit layer holds: the base of the food web the rest of the survey counts.C

328,439
values
45
flagged
i
45 of these 328,439 values (under 0.1 %) are flagged by their provider as questionable or bad. The Explorer, the climatology and its anomalies leave them out; do the same when you read the data yourself (cc_qual_ok_sql() in calcofi4r, qual_ok_sql() in calcofi4py).
1993–2026
years
1
dataset
1–200 m
depth
every month
months
stands in: chlorophyll-a measured fluorometrically’s face, cruise-corrected fluorescence estimateNo definition of its own: the estimate is described by its derivation, under How it is measured.

Measured in 1 dataset
i

One row per series, one cell per year, darker with more values — the same strip the front door draws per dataset and a species page draws per taxon. Each row is one dataset's own measurement_type; the label is written once, in the title above.

  • 328,439 values · 9,490 sampling events · 1993–2026 · 1–200 m · 113 grid cells · 138 cruises
    series est_chlorophyll_a_cruise_corr · source column est_chl_cruise_corr · flag column est_chl_cruise_corr_q no P01 concept 45 flagged

Explorera depth section vs normaldb-queryERDDAPThis page as JSON R · Python · Parquet

Every way in 8 ways · ERDDAP · Parquet · R · Python · JSON

Read from measurements.json of release v2026.11.05, written at release by calcofi4db::build_measurements_catalog() beside taxa.json. The catalog's index is /measurements/; the JSON-LD on this page is a schema.org/DefinedTerm in the NERC P01 term set with a PropertyValue per series.

ExplorerExplorer · a depth section vs normaldb-query
ERDDAP · CTD Cast FilesCalCOFI's own server, the CTD Cast Files table constrained to this series
https://erddap.calcofi.io/erddap/tabledap/calcofi_ctd-cast.html?&measurement_type=%22est_chlorophyll_a_cruise_corr%22
The structure chlorophyll-a measured fluorometrically’s, standing in
C55H72MgN4O5 chlorophyll a CHEBI:18230 · 893.509 g/mol · the_thing
C55H74N4O5 pheophytin a CHEBI:44898 · 871.220 g/mol · method_product

RDKit 2026.03.6 from the ChEBI molfile, in the page’s ink · CC BY 4.0. ChEBI’s roles are never shown.

How it is measured CTD-mounted fluorometer, corrected to bottle chlorophyll-a
CTD sensor
CTD Cast Files · CTD sensor
CTD-mounted fluorometer, corrected to bottle chlorophyll-a

The CTD fluorometer voltage converted to chlorophyll-a units by regression against that cast's (or cruise's) own bottle chlorophyll-a values. (the record's own derivation (measurement_type.csv))

flag est_chl_cruise_corr_q45 flagged
Why it matters 6 ways to say it · EOV Phytoplankton biomass and diversity

Essential Ocean Variable
Phytoplankton biomass and diversity

the GOOS specification sheet for this Essential Ocean Variable lists it, and asks

GOOS asks

  • Is the biomass of the ocean changing?

GOOS specification sheet ↗ · quoted, not copied

other ways to say why · 5
  • authored The fluorometer reads a profile continuously where the bottles read a handful of depths, so it is what shows the shape of the chlorophyll maximum. needs a citation before it can be the pick
  • authored Chlorophyll is what satellites see as ocean colour, and bottle chlorophyll like CalCOFI’s is among the ground truth their algorithms were fitted to. needs a citation before it can be the pick
  • GOOS asks Is the biomass of the ocean changing? source
  • Wikipedia Phytoplankton source
  • Wikipedia Chlorophyll a is a specific form of chlorophyll used in oxygenic photosynthesis. It absorbs most energy from wavelengths of violet-blue and orange-red light. Chlorophyll a · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1373717553
The record’s own history 5 depth bands against the 1993–2013 normal

Each year against the normal
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Units and range µg/L · 0 … 1000 declared · 45 flagged

µg/L (ug/L in metadata/measurement_type.csv) · P06 units UGPL

bounds0 … 1000 µg/Lobserved0 … 210.8 µg/Lflagged45baselineclimatology ✓
details
bounds
The registry declares 0 … 1000 µg/L for est_chlorophyll_a_cruise_corr; a value outside it is dropped at the ingest (drop_out_of_bounds()).
observed
CTD Cast Files est_chlorophyll_a_cruise_corr 0 · median 0.1711 · 210.8 µg/L (5th–95th percentile 0.0155–1.975)
flags
CTD Cast Files est_chlorophyll_a_cruise_corr est_chl_cruise_corr_q on 340 of 328,439 rows: 0 149 · 4 146 · 8 28 · 9 17; qual_ok keeps 328,394. The codes are this dataset's own vocabulary, uninterpreted.
baseline
A monthly climatology exists for this measurement (the release's climatology table: 1993–2013, dataset × station × the cruise's month × 10 m bin), so the Explorer can draw anomalies against it rather than values.
derivation
Fluorometer voltage converted to chlorophyll-a by regression against bottle chlorophyll-a, applied to the 1 m bin-averaged voltage over 0-200 m ONLY - undefined deeper by construction, not by absence of data. Bottle-corrected with ONE regression per cruise, fitted from 4-second-averaged sensor data against all the cruise's bottles (n ~ 1400, fliers omitted).

The familiar scale
i

Bars are each series' 5th–95th percentile, the line its minimum to maximum, the ring its median; the marks are metadata/measurement_scale.csv's, each hovering to its own source.

By depth · by month 1–200 m · every month

By depth
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Values per depth band at the release grain, one thin bar per series. The bands are the record's own (0-10 … 2000+ m).

By month
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Values per calendar month, one row per series: CalCOFI's quarterly cruises show as peaks in the months the ships sail.

Cite the release, v2026.11.05

Cite the release; each dataset's own citation, licence and DOI are on its page — CTD Cast Files. The Explorer's Share → Cite writes it for the view you make.