Aurora Australis 1991 Antarctic Voyage Underway Ocean Data

AAMBER2 Voyage 6 data contains underway marine science observations from the Aurora Australis ship's journey between Hobart and Antarctic stations in early 1991. The dataset includes Conductivity, Temperature, Depth (CTD) sensor readings logged at 60-second intervals. Data was collected and is managed by the Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AU_AADC).

Use Cases

• Analyzing temperature and salinity profiles against pressure to study water column stratification.
• Correlating geopotential anomalies with temperature and salinity changes to identify ocean currents.
• Modeling the relationship between pressure, temperature, and volume for physical oceanography studies.
• Tracing the voyage path using time-series CTD data to map spatial variability in Prydz Bay.

Strengths

• CTD data includes five specific fields: pressure, temperature, salinity, volume, and geopotential.
• Observations were logged at a consistent 60-second interval, providing regular time-series data.

Limitations

• Sample size, row count, and total data volume are unknown.
• Data is from a single voyage over a limited three-month period in 1991.
• The absence of geographic coordinate columns may limit spatial analysis without additional metadata.

Provenance

Source

Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AU_AADC) via NASA Earthdata.

Collection Method

Underway ship-based sensor logging, primarily from CTD instruments.

Time Range

January to March 1991.

Freshness

1991-03-20

Geography

Southern Ocean route from Hobart to Prydz Bay, Mawson, Davis, and back to Hobart.