NRDA CTD Data: Ocean Veritas Cruise 7, Gulf of Mexico

Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth (CTD) measurements were collected aboard the R/V Ocean Veritas 07 from 2010-07-02 to 2010-07-04 to determine physical oceanographic parameters. The data, which includes dissolved oxygen and fluorometry, were used to guide sampling efforts related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The final product is a series of quality-checked NetCDF files containing every processed CTD cast.

Use Cases

• Modeling oil plume dispersion based on water column salinity and temperature profiles.
• Assessing changes in dissolved oxygen levels near the Mississippi Canyon spill site.
• Calibrating remote sensing data with in-situ conductivity and fluorometry measurements.
• Studying vertical water column structure in the Gulf of Mexico during the spill response.

Strengths

• Data is processed and quality-checked, as stated in the descriptions.
• Covers a specific, critical time period (July 2-4, 2010) during the Deepwater Horizon response.
• Hosted by authoritative organizations like NOAA, indicating institutional provenance.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: row count, file size, column names, and specific license are unknown.
• Sources conflict on 'last updated' date (2010 vs. 2026), creating uncertainty about maintenance.
• The dataset's completeness is unclear, as descriptions only reference the final NetCDF product.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via shipboard CTD casts aboard the R/V Ocean Veritas 07.

Time Range

2010-07-02 to 2010-07-04

Freshness

2026-03-05 (from datagov, though this conflicts with a 2010 date from nasa_earthdata)

Geography

Gulf of Mexico, specifically the Mississippi Canyon area.