The Canary Islands Ocean Time Series Station (ESTOC) is an instrumented ocean station located 60 nautical miles north of Gran Canaria. Managed by PLOCAN, it has generated meteorological and oceanographic time series representative of the central-eastern North Atlantic since its inauguration in 1994.
ESTOC is co-managed by PLOCAN, the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, part of CSIC. This shared management reflects the multidisciplinary nature of the station, which combines ocean engineering, physical oceanography and marine carbon-cycle research.
The station is located at 29º10’N, 15º30’W in the Northeast Atlantic. It began as a site with monthly visits and discrete seawater sampling at 24 depths over a 3,650 m water column. These long-term observations have contributed to the study of climate change and its impact on the physico-chemical trends of the Atlantic Ocean.
Since 2016, PLOCAN has operated an oceanographic buoy at the ESTOC position. The buoy has included sensors for pCO2, surface pH, temperature, salinity, chlorophyll fluorescence and dissolved oxygen. Additional measurements in the water column and discrete samples for alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon support sensor recalibration and strengthen the value of the station for ocean carbon observations.