JGOFS/NABE: North Atlantic Surface Irradiance and Fluorescence

North Atlantic surface waters between Iceland, the Azores, and 60°N were surveyed during two research cruises in 1989. The dataset contains continuous optical measurements of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) irradiance and rescaled fluorescence, which serves as a proxy for chlorophyll-a and pigment concentrations. Data were collected as part of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) North Atlantic Bloom Experiment (NABE) by the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory.

Use Cases

• Modeling primary productivity based on continuous PAR irradiance measurements.
• Tracking spatial patterns of phytoplankton biomass using fluorescence-derived chlorophyll-a proxy data.
• Calibrating satellite ocean color data with in-situ optical measurements from specific cruises.
• Analyzing the relationship between salinity and phytoplankton fluorescence along transects.

Strengths

• Contains data from two distinct research cruises (Endeavor 168 and Atlantis II), providing comparative transects.
• Includes calculated fluorescence values calibrated to represent chlorophyll-a concentrations in specific units (µg/liter).
• Funded by specific NSF and Office of Naval Research grants, indicating rigorous peer-reviewed collection.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unknown across all sources.
• Sources conflict on the last update date (1989-07-07 vs. 2026-03-05), obscuring provenance clarity.
• Documentation is referenced but not directly described, requiring users to locate the 'MLML Tech Pub 90-1' readme file.

Provenance

Source

Moss Landing Marine Laboratory, California, for the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS)/ North Atlantic Bloom Experiment (NABE).

Collection Method

Continuous long track surface optical measurements collected from shipboard incubators.

Time Range

1989-04-18 to 1989-07-07

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:43:30.132143

Geography

NE Atlantic Ocean, specifically between Reykjavik (Iceland) and a 60°N station, and between the Azores and Iceland.