Polarstern Cruise 2011: Surface Ocean Carbon and Meteorological Measurements

NCEI Accession 0157242 contains surface underway data from the research vessel Polarstern's 2011-2012 voyage across multiple Arctic and Southern Ocean seas. The dataset includes measurements of carbon dioxide fugacity in air and water, salinity, sea surface temperature, barometric pressure, and wind conditions. These data were collected by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Groningen University, and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research using a CO2 gas analyzer and other instruments.

Use Cases

• Analyzing air-sea CO2 flux gradients based on partial pressure measurements in water and atmosphere.
• Studying correlations between sea surface temperature, salinity, and carbon dioxide fugacity in polar oceans.
• Modeling wind-driven gas exchange processes using concurrent wind speed and direction data.
• Investigating regional carbon system variability across the Arctic Ocean, Barents Sea, and Southern Oceans.

Strengths

• Covers a wide geographic range across nine distinct ocean regions, including the Arctic and Southern Oceans.
• Provides concurrent chemical, physical, and meteorological variables from a single, documented research cruise.
• Data is hosted on multiple authoritative platforms (NASA EarthData, Data.gov), indicating validation and importance.

Limitations

• Column names and exact data structure are not provided in any source description.
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific license are unavailable across all platforms.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (2012-01-04 vs. 2026-03 05) create uncertainty about provenance timeliness.

Provenance

Source

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Groningen University, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ)

Collection Method

Surface underway observations collected from the research vessel Polarstern using a Carbon dioxide (CO2) gas analyzer and other instruments.

Time Range

2011-06-17 to 2012-01-04

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:09:26.485808

Geography

Arctic Ocean, Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, North Greenland Sea, North Sea, Norwegian Sea, South Atlantic Ocean, Southern Oceans (> 60 degrees South)