Gulf of California CTD Profiles from New Horizon Cruise

High-resolution oceanographic profiles from the R/V New Horizon cruise in the Gulf of California, collected between May 1984 and March 1985. The dataset contains processed conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) and salinity-temperature-depth (STD) measurements, providing nearly continuous vertical profiles of temperature, salinity, and density. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into their standard F022 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical stratification and water mass properties in the Gulf of California using temperature and salinity profiles.
• Studying seasonal variability in oceanographic conditions from 1984 to 1985 across the cruise's sampling stations.
• Calculating derived oceanographic parameters like density (sigma-t) from the core measurements of conductivity, temperature, and depth.
• Correlating subsurface ocean conditions with concurrent surface meteorological and sea state data reported at each cast.

Strengths

• Provides high-resolution vertical profiles with sampling intervals as fine as 1 meter.
• Data is processed and standardized to the authoritative NODC F022 format, ensuring consistency.
• Covers a defined 10-month time range from May 1984 to March 1985 with precise station-level metadata.

Limitations

• Specific column names, total row count, and exact file size are unknown from available sources.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between platforms (2026 on Data.gov vs. 1985 on NASA Earthdata), creating provenance uncertainty.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via shipboard CTD and STD instruments during the R/V New Horizon cruise, processed by NODC.

Time Range

1984-05-11 to 1985-03-25

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:06:19.530810

Geography

Gulf of California