N: 25 S: 24 E: -27 W: -38
Description
The SPURS (Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study) project is an oceanographic process study and associated field program that aim to elucidate key mechanisms responsible for near-surface salinity variations in the oceans. The project involves two field campaigns and a series of cruises in regions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans exhibiting salinity extremes. SPURS employs a suite of state-of-the-art in-situ sampling technologies that, combined with remotely sensed salinity fields from the Aquarius/SAC-D and SMOS satellites, provide a detailed characterization of salinity structure over a continuum of spatio-temporal scales. The SPURS-1 campaign involved a series of 5 cruises during 2012 - 2013 seeking to characterize the salinity structure and balance in a high salinity, high evaporation, and low rainfall region of the subtropical North Atlantic. It aims to resolve processes responsible for maintaining the subtropical surface salinity maximum in this region and within a 900 x 800-mile square study area centered at 25N, 38W. Two PICO moorings (PICO-1000, PICO-3000) were deployed on the Knorr cruise in September 2012 in the northern and eastern SPURS-1 domain quadrants at N24.74, W37.95 and N24.51, W37.81 respectively. The moorings contained a surface meteorological package and a "prawler", a CTD that crawls up and down the mooring line from the near-surface down to about 500m, yielding time series of salinity and temperature profile data at fixed locations. The moorings were recovered on the Endeavor-2 cruise. PICO mooring netCDF files contain georeferenced CTD profile data including salinity, temperature, potential temperature, pressure, depth, meteorological variables, GPS-Lat/Lon, and profile ID.
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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 Sort descending | Description | Units | Data Type | Fill Value | Valid Range | Scale Factor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| conductivity | Conductivity of CTD measurement | S/m | float | 1.0E+30 | 0.52499997615814 to 6.4271998405457 | 1 |
| deltasec | Time change from start of CTD profile | seconds | float | N/A | N/A | 1 |
| gps_latitude | Note: Mooring went adrift on 2013-Feb-19 | degrees_north | float | N/A | 23 to 25 | 1 |
| gps_longitude | Note: Mooring went adrift on 2013-Feb-19 | degrees_east | float | N/A | -39 to -37 | 1 |
| gps_time | GPS Time on mooring | seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 0:00 | double | N/A | N/A | 1 |
| latitude | Note: Mooring went adrift on 2013-Feb-19 | degrees_north | float | N/A | 23 to 25 | 1 |
| longitude | Note: Mooring went adrift on 2013-Feb-19 | degrees_east | float | N/A | -39 to -37 | 1 |
| nominal_latitude | Nominal latitude while the mooring was not adrift | degrees_north | float | N/A | 24.71 to 24.71 | 1 |
| nominal_longitude | Nominal longitude while the mooring was not adrift | degrees_east | float | N/A | -37.96 to -37.96 | 1 |
| potential_temperature | Potential temperature of CTD measurement | degrees_C | float | 1.0E+30 | -0.56746780872345 to 29.35048866272 | 1 |
| pressure | Pressure of CTD measurement | decibars | float | N/A | 2 to 496 | 1 |
| profile | Unique identifier for each feature instance | N/A | float | N/A | N/A | 1 |
| salinity | Salinity of CTD measurement | psu | float | 1.0E+30 | 31.31093788147 to 37.780040740967 | 1 |
| temperature | Temperature of CTD measurement | degrees_C | float | 1.0E+30 | 0 to 29.650999069214 | 1 |
| time | Time of CTD measurement | seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 0:00 | double | N/A | N/A | 1 |
| z | Depth of CTD measurement | m | float | N/A | 1 to 6396 | 1 |