Oceanographic Data from Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response Cruise

Over 40 days of oceanographic data were collected aboard the OCEAN VERITAS from September 7 to October 16, 2010, in direct response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The dataset includes chemical and physical measurements such as Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, conductivity, temperature, and salinity, gathered by a multi-agency Subsurface Monitoring Unit. It contains provisional laboratory analysis results and products created for real-time decision support.

Use Cases

• Tracking hydrocarbon contamination levels via Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) and Volatile Organic Compounds columns.
• Analyzing water column physical properties using conductivity, temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen measurements.
• Assessing the extent of oil dispersion through CDOM fluorescence and semivolatile organic compound data.
• Correlating laboratory analysis of water and sediment samples with in-situ CTD profile data.
• Supporting environmental impact models with geospatial and time-series data from the 40-day monitoring cruise.

Strengths

• Data collection targeted a major environmental event, providing a focused 40-day time series from the Gulf of Mexico.
• Includes both in-situ sensor data (CTD, fluorometer) and provisional onshore laboratory analysis for cross-validation.
• CTD data underwent preliminary quality assurance and control procedures by the National Coastal Data Development Center.
• Dataset contains derived products like charts and GIS files created for real-time analysis and decision support.

Limitations

• Critical metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all platforms.
• Analytical chemistry data are explicitly noted as provisional, indicating they are not final validated results.
• The last update date conflicts between sources (2010-10-16 on NASA Earthdata vs. 2026-03 06 on Data.gov), suggesting possible metadata refresh versus data collection end.

Provenance

Source

Subsurface Monitoring Unit (SMU), consisting of multiple government and corporate agencies, collected for NOAA.

Collection Method

Data gathered via shipboard instruments (CTD, bottle, fluorometer, oxygen meter) and onshore laboratory analysis of samples.

Time Range

2010-09-07 to 2010-10-16

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:25:22.377393

Geography

Gulf of Mexico