CTD Oceanographic Measurements from Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Response Cruise

Gulf of Mexico conductivity, temperature, depth, dissolved oxygen, and fluorometry data were collected aboard NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow during a 2010 cruise associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response. The dataset consists of processed and quality-checked CTD casts from Cruise 1 Leg 1, spanning from August 3 to August 10, 2010. It was produced by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) as part of the spill sampling effort.

Use Cases

• Analyzing changes in water column salinity and temperature (conductivity/salinity, temperature) to track oil spill plume dispersion.
• Correlating dissolved oxygen levels with fluorometry data to assess potential biological impacts from the spill.
• Modeling vertical ocean structure using depth profiles from each processed CTD cast.
• Studying short-term oceanographic variability in the Gulf of Mexico during August 2010 using the time-series of casts.

Strengths

• Data has been processed and quality checked, indicating a level of validation.
• Contains multiple key oceanographic parameters: temperature, conductivity/salinity, depth, dissolved oxygen, and fluorometry.
• Temporal coverage is precisely defined from 2010-08-03 to 2010-08-10.
• Geographic scope is specific to the Gulf of Mexico during a significant environmental event.

Limitations

• Dataset size, row count, and specific file formats are unknown.
• Data is from a single 7-day cruise, offering limited temporal scope.
• The dataset is over 14 years old, which may limit relevance for current conditions analysis.

Provenance

Source

NOAA_NCEI

Collection Method

Measured onboard the R/V Henry Bigelow using CTD instruments.

Time Range

2010-08-03 to 2010-08-10

Freshness

null

Geography

Gulf of Mexico