NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow Coastal Carbon Measurements

NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory installed a dedicated instrument on NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow in February 2011 to autonomously measure carbon dioxide levels. This dataset contains surface underway observations from 2018, including the fugacity of CO2 in seawater, sea surface temperature, and salinity, collected during coastal cruises between North Carolina and Maine. The data were collected by researchers Rik Wanninkhof, Denis Pierrot, and Kevin Sullivan.

Use Cases

• Calculating air-sea CO2 flux based on the difference between seawater fugacity and interpolated air fugacity.
• Monitoring ocean acidification trends using sea surface temperature, salinity, and fugacity of CO2 in seawater.
• Validating biogeochemical models with in-situ measurements of mole fraction of CO2 in equilibrator headspace and dry air.
• Assessing coastal carbon dynamics from surface underway data collected along the US North-East coast.

Strengths

• Data originates from a dedicated instrument installed on a NOAA research vessel for autonomous measurement.
• Includes derived scientific variables like fugacity of CO2 and the difference between seawater and air fugacity.
• Collection was conducted by named NOAA/AOML scientists Rik Wanninkhof, Denis Pierrot, and Kevin Sullivan.

Limitations

• Column names and row counts are unspecified across all platforms, limiting precise structural understanding.
• Metadata completeness is low; license, author organization, and exact data size are unknown.
• The last updated date conflicts between sources (2026-03-05 and 2018-11-13), suggesting potential metadata inconsistency.

Provenance

Source

NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML)

Collection Method

Surface underway observations collected via carbon dioxide gas analyzer and shower head chamber equilibrator on NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow.

Time Range

2018

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:36:03.824374

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean, US North-East coast, between North Carolina and Maine.