Allure of the Seas: Underway Ocean Carbon Measurements

NOAA's Ocean Carbon Group collected sea surface underway measurements of partial pressure of carbon dioxide, temperature, salinity, and barometric pressure from the cruise ship C/S Allure of the Seas. The data covers voyages in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and North Atlantic Ocean from January 5 to March 9, 2020. An autonomous instrument installed in 2015 provides continuous observations of CO2 levels in surface water and air.

Use Cases

• Calculating air-sea CO2 flux based on partial pressure measurements.
• Monitoring ocean acidification trends in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.
• Correlating sea surface salinity and temperature with carbon dioxide concentrations.
• Validating regional carbon cycle models using underway observational data.

Strengths

• Data originates from NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), a leading ocean carbon research group.
• Provides a continuous time series over a specific two-month period in 2020.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov suggests importance and curation.

Limitations

• Column names and exact data structure are unknown, limiting detailed analysis.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (2026-03-05 vs. 2020-03-09) indicate potential metadata inconsistency.
• No row count, file size, or license information is provided.

Provenance

Source

NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) Ocean Carbon Group

Collection Method

Autonomous instrument installed on the cruise ship C/S Allure of the Seas for Ship of Opportunity (SOOP) underway measurements.

Time Range

2020-01-05 to 2020-03-09

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:55:33.415742

Geography

Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, North Atlantic Ocean