Arctic Ocean Mooring Data with Ice Draft Measurements

Mooring C in the Beaufort Gyre collected 368 days of oceanographic and sea ice data during 2004-2005. The deployment included a bottom pressure recorder, a moored profiler, and an upward-looking sonar. Data collection was conducted by the Beaufort Gyre Exploration Project, with records last updated in March 2006.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal trends in ice draft from 15,903,339 sonar samples to study sea ice variability.
• Correlate bottom pressure recorder measurements (21,208 samples of pressure, temperature, salinity) with regional atmospheric forcing.
• Examine vertical ocean structure using 328 profiles of pressure, temperature, salinity, and horizontal velocity from the moored profiler.
• Investigate freshwater content and halocline stability in the Beaufort Gyre using the collected salinity profiles.
• Validate satellite-derived sea ice thickness estimates against the in-situ ice draft measurements.

Strengths

• High-resolution time series with over 15.9 million ice draft samples from the sonar.
• Multi-instrument deployment providing 328 full water column profiles and 21,208 bottom measurements.
• Continuous year-long temporal coverage (368 days) for observing seasonal cycles.

Limitations

• Data is temporally limited to a single annual cycle (2004-2005).
• Geographic scope is limited to a single mooring location in the Beaufort Gyre.
• Sample data and specific column definitions are unavailable for review.

Provenance

Source

Beaufort Gyre Exploration Project, organization listed as SCIOPS, accessed via NASA Earthdata.

Collection Method

Data collected via an instrumented oceanographic mooring equipped with a bottom pressure recorder, McLane Moored Profiler, and upward-looking sonar.

Time Range

2004 to 2005 (368-day deployment).

Freshness

Data is from 2004-2005, with a last update recorded in 2006.

Geography

Beaufort Gyre region of the Arctic Ocean (specific mooring location C).