Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill CTD Water Column Measurements

Conductivity, temperature, depth, dissolved oxygen, and fluorometry data were collected from the water column during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Measurements were taken aboard the NOAA Ship Pisces from August 6 to August 14, 2010, to guide sampling efforts. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) processed and quality-checked the data, delivering it as a series of NetCDF files.

Use Cases

• Modeling the vertical distribution of dissolved oxygen and salinity to assess water column stratification post-spill.
• Correlating fluorometry readings with satellite data to track subsurface oil plume dispersion.
• Analyzing temperature and conductivity time-series to study the spill's effect on local oceanographic conditions.
• Using depth-profiled data to calibrate hydrodynamic models of the Gulf of Mexico during the event.

Strengths

• Data is processed and quality-checked, as stated in the source description.
• Focuses on a specific, critical 9-day period during a major environmental event.

Limitations

• The dataset's exact spatial sampling density and total number of casts (rows) are unknown.
• Data is from a single cruise leg, limiting geographic scope within the Gulf of Mexico.
• Temporal coverage is limited to August 2010, providing a snapshot rather than long-term trends.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI Accession 0128212).

Collection Method

Conductivity Temperature Depth (CTD) instrument casts collected onboard NOAA Ship Pisces.

Time Range

2010-08-06 to 2010-08 14.

Freshness

null

Geography

Gulf of Mexico, specific cruise track for NOAA Ship Pisces Cruise 3 Leg 1.