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Description
NASA's Saildrone Baja dataset provides high-resolution ocean and atmospheric observations from a 60-day autonomous cruise from San Francisco Bay to Guadalupe Island and back between 11 April and 11 June 2018. The wind and solar-powered Saildrone collected near-surface data at 1-minute resolution and Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) data at 5-minute resolution. Scientific objectives included studies of upwelling, frontal dynamics, air-sea interactions, and validation for satellite data and model assimilation.
Use Cases
Validate satellite-derived sea surface temperature and salinity data based on the high-resolution in-situ skin and bulk temperature measurements.
Study coastal upwelling and frontal dynamics based on the repeated surveys around NDBC moored buoys and targeted front sampling.
Model air-sea interaction processes based on concurrent measurements of wind speed/direction, air temperature, and sea surface temperature.
Analyze diurnal warming effects on the upper ocean based on vertical temperature loggers positioned along the hull.
Assess ocean current profiles and variability based on the depth-resolved ADCP current vector data down to 100 meters.
Strengths
High temporal resolution with near-surface data recorded every minute and ADCP data binned at 5-minute intervals.
Multivariate observations include air and sea temperatures, salinity, oxygen, chlorophyll-a, barometric pressure, wind, and current profiles.
Data is CF/ACDD compliant and in netCDF format, consistent with NOAA/NCEI specifications for interoperability.
Covers a focused 60-day campaign with a clear scientific purpose for validation and process studies.
Limitations
Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
Row count and total dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
Data reflects a specific geographic and temporal bias from a single cruise in spring/summer 2018.
Provenance
Source
NASA
Collection Method
Observations collected by a wind and solar-powered autonomous Saildrone equipped with a CTD, IR pyrometer, fluorometer, dissolved oxygen sensor, anemometer, barometer, ADCP, and hull temperature loggers.
Time Range
11 April 2018 to 11 June 2018
Freshness
Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
Geography
Cruise from San Francisco Bay, down the US/Mexico coast to Guadalupe Island and back.
Access requires an Earthdata Login account. Data is stored on AWS S3 in netCDF format.