Quarterly surveys of physical, chemical, and biological parameters in ocean water using a Remotely Operated Towed Vehicle (ROTV). The City’s Ocean Monitoring Program (OMP) conducts quarterly surveys using a ROTV. The ROTV houses multiple sensors used to monitor physical, chemical, and biological parameters to assess water quality and the fate of treated wastewater effluent across the San Diego coastline with high spatial resolution. In the initial phase of ROTV monitoring, efforts were focused on corroborating ROTV data against traditional water quality monitoring data by surveying across the traditional sampling grid. Future surveys will be conducted adaptively with monitoring efforts focused on the location of the treated wastewater effluent, when observable.

Please note: ROTV data have been preliminarily reviewed by Marine Biology and Ocean Operations staff using automated checks and some manual review. Inaccuracies in the data may persist due to subtle instrument problems or the lack of appropriate validation data, and subsequent review may result in future revisions to the data. See ROTV parameter definitions for a description of variables by file name and for data qualifier (QARTOD flag) definitions. Data qualified as “bad” or “suspect” have been excluded from this dataset.