Minerve-38 Cruise: Ocean Carbon and Surface Data

NCEI Accession 0157233 contains surface underway data from the Minerve-38 cruise of the vessel L'ASTROLABE. The dataset includes measurements of carbon dioxide partial pressure in air and water, salinity, sea surface temperature, barometric pressure, and fluorescence. These data were collected in the Indian Ocean, South Pacific Ocean, Southern Ocean, and Tasman Sea from October 21 to November 23, 1996.

Use Cases

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

Strengths

• Data covers a specific, well-documented research cruise (Minerve-38) with a clear time range.
• Includes simultaneous measurements of atmospheric and aquatic carbon dioxide partial pressure, enabling flux calculations.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA Earthdata suggests established curation and accessibility.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, specific column names, and license are not provided by any source.
• The dataset is historical, with collection ending in 1996 and no indication of ongoing updates.
• One source lists the author's affiliation as 'Universite Pierre et Marie Curie; Laboratoire de Biogeochimie et Chimie Marines' while another uses 'Sorbonne University (SU)', indicating potential inconsistency in attribution.

Provenance

Source

Nicolas Metzl (Universite Pierre et Marie Curie; Laboratoire de Biogeochimie et Chimie Marines / Sorbonne University (SU))

Collection Method

Surface underway observations collected from the vessel L'ASTROLABE using barometric pressure sensors and carbon dioxide gas analyzers.

Time Range

1996-10-21 to 1996-11-23

Freshness

2026-03-06 (Data.gov platform metadata update)

Geography

Indian Ocean, South Pacific Ocean, Southern Oceans (> 60 degrees South), Tasman Sea