Partial pressure of carbon dioxide and 18 other chemical and physical variables were collected from the R/V Knorr in the South Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea during a 1992 research cruise. The data were gathered by researchers from Universitat Kiel as part of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment Hydrographic Program, which aimed to understand the ocean's role in climate. The final WOCE collection from 1990-1998 covers approximately 23,000 stations from 94 cruises.
Use Cases
- Modeling ocean carbon uptake based on partial pressure of carbon dioxide and dissolved inorganic carbon measurements.
- Analyzing ocean circulation patterns using chlorofluorocarbon (CFC-11, CFC-12) tracer data.
- Studying marine biogeochemical cycles based on nitrate, phosphate, silicate, and oxygen profiles.
- Calibrating climate models with historical water temperature, salinity, and potential temperature observations.
Strengths
- Includes 20 distinct chemical, physical, and isotopic variables per observation.
- Part of the large-scale WOCE program, which collected data from approximately 23,000 stations globally.
- Data collection uses established oceanographic instruments like CTD rosettes and Niskin bottles.
Limitations
- Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
- Last updated 1992-07-30; freshness should be verified for contemporary applications.
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
Provenance
- Source
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally from Universitat Kiel researchers.
- Collection Method
- Discrete water samples and continuous profiles collected using CTD, bottle, and other instruments aboard the R/V Knorr.
- Time Range
- 1992-05-02 to 1992-07-30
- Freshness
- Data collection ended 1992-07-30.
- Geography
- South Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea