OUTPACE: Ocean Carbon and Nutrient Profiles from the South Pacific, 2015

From 2015-02-18 to 2015-04-03, the R/V L'Atalante collected discrete profile measurements of dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, temperature, salinity, oxygen, and nutrients in the western tropical South Pacific Ocean. The data were collected along a 4000 km transect between the Melanesian Archipelago and the western South Pacific gyre, primarily from the surface to 2000 m depth. This dataset is part of the Oligotrophy from Ultra-oligoTrophy PACific Experiment (OUTPACE) cruise, archived by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean carbon uptake and acidification based on dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity measurements.
• Studying the relationship between nutrient distributions and biological productivity in the western tropical South Pacific.
• Analyzing vertical water column structure and oceanographic processes based on temperature, salinity, and oxygen profiles.
• Investigating regional nitrogen fixation hotspots by correlating nutrient data with the study's stated focus.

Strengths

• Data covers a significant spatial scale with a 4000 km longitudinal transect.
• Profiles extend to a depth of 2000 meters, providing a detailed vertical perspective.
• Includes multiple core oceanographic parameters (DIC, TALK, temperature, salinity, oxygen, nutrients) for integrated analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific modeling tasks.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to a single cruise in 2015.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Discrete profile measurements collected during the R/V L'Atalante OUTPACE research cruise.

Time Range

2015-02-18 to 2015-04-03

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-05 22:26:59.378443; freshness should be verified.

Geography

South Pacific Ocean, along a transect between the Melanesian Archipelago and the western South Pacific gyre.