CAPRICORN 2016 Southern Ocean Meteorological and Flux Data

Approximately 40 days of 10-minute averaged surface meteorological data and turbulent fluxes were collected south of Tasmania from March 14 to April 16, 2016. This dataset from the CAPRICORN field campaign combines direct measurements from NOAA's flux system and instruments on the RV Investigator with model outputs from COARE 3.5. It is produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to study atmosphere-ocean exchanges.

Use Cases

• Validating and improving turbulent flux parameterizations in climate models using direct measurements of heat, water, and momentum exchange.
• Analyzing the diurnal cycle of sea surface temperature, air temperature, humidity, and wind speed over the Southern Ocean.
• Assessing the performance of the COARE 3.5 bulk flux algorithm against direct observational data from the ship-based system.
• Studying aerosol and cloud formation processes by correlating surface fluxes with atmospheric composition measurements.
• Quality controlling ship-based data by applying provided flags to reject periods affected by ship contamination or maneuvering.

Strengths

• Includes both direct instrument measurements and model output from the COARE 3.5 algorithm for comparison.
• Data is corrected for known measurement issues and includes quality control flags to identify ship-influenced records.
• Provides high-temporal-resolution 10-minute averages for detailed process studies over a continuous 40-day campaign.

Limitations

• The exact row count, file size, and complete column list are not specified in the provided metadata.
• Conflicting last update dates exist between platforms (2016-04 15 on NASA Earthdata vs. 2026-03-05 on Data.gov).
• Spatial coverage is limited to the ship track south of Tasmania during a specific 40-day period.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Direct measurements from the NOAA ESRL PSD flux system and permanent instruments on the RV Investigator, combined with COARE 3.5 model outputs.

Time Range

2016-03-14 to 2016-04-16

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:32:22.276516

Geography

Indian and South Pacific Oceans, south of Tasmania