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Description

The Salinity and Stratification at the Sea Ice Edge (SASSIE) project is a NASA experiment that aims to understand how salinity anomalies in the upper ocean generated by melting sea ice affect sea surface temperature (SST), stratification, and subsequent sea-ice growth. SASSIE involved a field campaign that sampled the transition from summer melt to autumn ice advance in the Beaufort Sea during August-October 2022, making intensive in situ and remote sensing observations within ~200 km of the sea ice edge. This dataset contains temperature and salinity measurements collected by ALTO and Air Launched Autonomous Micro Observer (ALAMO) profiling floats deployed in the Beaufort Sea. ALTO floats had ice-avoidance firmware, meaning that they stopped surfacing and transmitting data once surface temperatures dropped to near-freezing values (indicating the presence of sea ice). They will hopefully reappear in summer 2023 to report data from the previous ice-covered season. ALAMO floats did not have ice-avoidance, in order to ensure that they reported data as long as possible during ice freeze-up. As a result, they will likely not survive over the winter. Future versions if this dataset may include data collected after Fall 2022. Data are available in netCDF format.

Product Summary

Platforms
Argo-Float
Instruments
CTD
Spatial Extent

N: 73.5 S: 71 E: -145 W: -156

Geographic Region
BEAUFORT SEA
Coordinate System
GEODETIC
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2022-09-08 to 2022-10-15
Data Partner
Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA (NASA/JPL/PODAAC)
Concept ID
C2638311700-POCLOUD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
7
Processing Level
2
Science Keywords
OCEAN TEMPERATURE PROFILES ,
CONDUCTIVITY PROFILES ,
OCEAN SALINITY PROFILES ,
Salinity ,
Conductivity

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

Jayne, S. (2022). SASSIE Arctic Field Campaign ALTO/ALAMO Profiling Float Data Fall 2022 [Data set]. NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/SASSIE-PFLT2 Date Accessed: 2025-12-14

Documents

Variables

Variables are a set of physical properties whose values determine the characteristics or behavior of something. For example, temperature and pressure are variables of the atmosphere. Parameters and variables can be used interchangeably. Variable level attributes provide individual information for each variable.

The Name in this table is the variable name. Fill value indicates missing or undefined data points in a variable. Valid range is the range of values the variable can store. Scale factor is used to increase or decrease the size of an object and can be used to correct for distortion. For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
depth depth m double N/A N/A 1
latitude latitude degree_north double N/A N/A 1
longitude longitude degree_east double N/A N/A 1
salinity sea_water_practical_salinity 1 double -9999 2 to 42 1
temperature sea_water_temperature degree_C double -9999 -2 to 30 1
time time Days since 1950-01-01 double N/A N/A 1
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