NCEI Accession 0117291: Surface Carbon Dioxide Measurements from RIO BLANCO

Surface underway data from the R/V RIO BLANCO cruise 06RB20091213 spans the English Channel, Mediterranean Sea, North and South Atlantic Ocean, and Strait of Gibraltar from December 2009 to December 2010. The dataset likely contains measurements of atmospheric and aquatic partial pressure of carbon dioxide, salinity, sea surface temperature, and barometric pressure. These observations were collected by researchers from Sorbonne University using specialized gas analyzers, equilibrators, and thermosalinographs.

Use Cases

• Calculating air-sea CO2 flux based on partial pressure measurements in water and atmosphere.
• Analyzing correlations between sea surface temperature and carbon dioxide fugacity.
• Studying regional variability in ocean carbon parameters across the Atlantic and Mediterranean basins.
• Validating ocean carbon cycle models with in-situ surface underway observations.

Strengths

• Data covers a wide geographic scope across multiple major ocean basins and seas.
• Measurements are derived from specialized, high-precision instruments like carbon dioxide gas analyzers and thermosalinographs.
• The dataset has a precise temporal coverage of over one year, from 2009-12-13 to 2010-12-14.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing, including row count, file size, specific column names, and license information.
• Platform sources provide conflicting 'last updated' timestamps (2010-12-14 vs. 2026-03-05), creating uncertainty about data currency.
• The dataset's completeness and potential gaps are unknown due to the lack of documentation on sampling frequency or methodology details.

Provenance

Source

Nathalie Lefèvre of Sorbonne University (SU); collected as part of the VOS_Rio_Blanco_2010 dataset.

Collection Method

Surface underway observations using barometric pressure sensor, carbon dioxide (CO2) gas analyzer, shower head chamber equilibrator, and thermosalinographs.

Time Range

2009-12-13 to 2010-12-14

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:09:01.852789

Geography

English Channel, Mediterranean Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean, Strait of Gibraltar