VOS Polar Star 2001: Underway Surface Ocean Carbon and Meteorology

NODC Accession 0108234 contains chemical, meteorological, and physical data from the USCGC POLAR STAR cruise 32PZ20011102, spanning from 2001-11-02 to 2002-04-23. Measurements include barometric pressure, carbon dioxide partial pressure in air and water, salinity, and sea surface temperature from the Coral Sea, North Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean, and Tasman Sea. Data were collected by NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory using CO2 gas analyzers and equilibrators.

Use Cases

• Calculating air-sea CO2 flux based on partial pressure difference measurements.
• Analyzing correlations between sea surface temperature and carbon dioxide fugacity.
• Validating regional ocean carbon models using in-situ underway surface data.
• Studying seasonal oceanographic variability in the South Pacific and Tasman Sea.

Strengths

• Data collection covers a specific 5-month cruise with a defined time range from 2001-11-02 to 2002-04-23.
• Includes direct measurements from calibrated instruments like CO2 gas analyzers and shower head equilibrators.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov suggests established provenance and importance.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and file size are unknown across all sources.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (2002-04-23 vs. 2026-03-05) create uncertainty about metadata freshness.
• Documentation is sparse, lacking details on data resolution, quality flags, or specific sampling protocols.

Provenance

Source

US DOC; NOAA; OAR; Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML)

Collection Method

Underway - surface observations from the USCGC POLAR STAR using Carbon dioxide (CO2) gas analyzer and Shower head chamber equilibrator.

Time Range

2001-11-02 to 2002-04-23

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:13:01.947091

Geography

Coral Sea, North Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean, Tasman Sea