Data Access Options
Project
Gliders in the Gulf Stream
Site
Gulf Stream
Date Range
2017-11-29 to 2018-03-29
Sensors
This file contains data from the following specific instruments: Sea-Bird SBE 41CP CTD, Seapoint chlorophyll fluorometer.
Summary
Spray glider data from mission 17B06601, part of the Gliders in the gulf stream project. This is the complete science-quality dataset for the full mission, spanning from 2017-11-29 to 2018-03-29.
The overarching goal of this project is to collect high resolution transects across the Gulf Stream. Though the speed of the Gulf Stream greatly exceeds the speed of a glider, gliders can be flown across the current as they are advected downstream. Missions prior to 2015 were conducted downstream (northeast) of Cape Hatteras, primarily between Cape Cod and Bermuda; missions since 2015 begin in Miami, FL and are planned to end on the New England continental shelf. During a typical 100-day mission between Miami and Cape Cod, a single glider completes 6-10 crossings of the Gulf Stream, returning approximately 800 profiles to the shallower of the sea floor or 1000 m. The current operational goal is to maintain at least one glider in the Gulf Stream at all times. Additional plots of these data are available at http://gliders.whoi.edu.
This is a delayed-mode science-quality data product providing the highest-resolution and highest quality data for this mission. After a glider mission is complete and the glider is recovered, the full-resolution data are downloaded and quality controlled resulting in this data product. This product is typically available three to six months after a glider mission is complete.
The delayed-mode science quality full-resolution data product should be used in place of near-real-time data once this higher-quality data product is available. This is a rigorously quality controlled dataset, the results of quality control tests are included as flags. Where appropriate, in addition to the original data with quality flags, corrected variables are also provided. These are noted in the variable metadata.Users of the data must apply the quality control flag variables referenced as ancillary variables on the data variables, these flags provide necessary information for using the data.
About these measurements: A Spray glider moves slowly through the water and collects information about the water it is traveling through. It collects a series of vertical profiles from the ocean seafloor (up to 1000m deep) to the ocean surface. In typical operations to 1000 m depth, a Spray glider travels 15 miles and makes 4 profiles per day. When on the ocean surface, about every three to six hours, it sends the information it collected underwater back via satellite, and then dives back down to continue collecting data.
The Spray ocean glider carries a pumped Sea-Bird CTD to measure pressure, temperature, and salinity, a Seapoint fluorometer, and a Sea-Bird dissolved oxygen sensor. Additionally, a Nortek acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) measures depth dependent water velocity. The ocean glider position is measured at the surface at the beginning and end of each dive by GPS, allowing for a dead reckoning estimation of depth averaged water velocity.
An underwater glider runs on batteries and can stay out to sea for months at a time. Spray gliders collect observations on the ascent of a dive. Sensor observations are not collected on the descent and one vertical profile of observations is collected on the ascent of each dive.
Contributors
Robert Todd (PrincipalInvestigator), Brechner Owens (PrincipalInvestigator), Instrument Development Group (processor), Jennifer Sevadjian (resourceProvider)
References
Heiderich, J., R.E. Todd (2020). Along-stream evolution of Gulf Stream volume transport. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 50(8), 2251-2270. doi: 10.1175/JPO-D-19-0303.1; Todd, R. E. (2021). Gulf Stream mean and eddy kinetic energy: three-dimensional estimates from underwater glider observations. Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2020GL090281. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL090281
Acknowledgement
This project has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, NOAA Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Program (GOMO), Eastman, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Data distribution support is provided by the Instrument Development Group at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.