Southern Ocean CTD Profiles and Salinity Data from 1991 Antarctic Cruise
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Description
January to March 1991 oceanographic data from a research cruise between Tasmania and Prydz Bay, Antarctica. The dataset contains 159 vertical profile stations measuring conductivity, temperature, depth, and related parameters, collected by the Australian Antarctic Data Centre. Salinity data from Niskin bottle samples is included, though other bottle sample data is unavailable.
Use Cases
Analyze vertical water column structure using pressure, temperature, and salinity columns from 159 CTD stations.
Study spatial oceanographic gradients by correlating station measurements like sigma-T and geopotential anomaly with start, bottom, and finish position coordinates.
Calibrate CTD sensor salinity readings against bottle sample salinity data, noted as accurate to 0.005 (PSS78).
Investigate relationships between physical parameters (temperature, salinity) and biological indicators like fluorescence and photosynthetically active radiation.
Strengths
159 CTD vertical profile stations provide detailed spatial coverage of the study region.
Salinity data is calibrated against bottle samples with stated accuracy of approximately 0.005 (PSS78).
Multiple related parameters per station, including temperature, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence, and geopotential anomaly.
Limitations
Nutrient and dissolved oxygen data from bottle samples are excluded due to poor quality, limiting chemical analysis.
Data is from a single cruise in early 1991, offering a temporal snapshot but not long-term trends.
Sample size is limited to one geographic expedition, which may not represent broader Southern Ocean conditions.
Provenance
Source
Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AU_AADC).
Collection Method
Measurements from ship-based CTD casts and Niskin bottle water samples collected using a 24-bottle rosette sampler.
Time Range
January 1991 to March 1991.
Freshness
Data collection ended in March 1991; this is a historical snapshot with no updates.
Geography
Southern Ocean, from Tasmania to Antarctica, primarily in the Prydz Bay region.
Only salinity data is available from the bottle samples; nutrient and dissolved oxygen bottle data are not included due to quality issues. The dataset's primary temporal coverage is a two-month period in 1991.