RB1205 Cruise: Surface Ocean Carbon Measurements

NCEI Accession 0162170 contains surface underway measurements from NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown cruise RB1205 in the North Atlantic Ocean. Data from September 2-5, 2012, include mole fraction of CO2 in air and water, fugacity of CO2 in seawater, sea surface temperature, salinity, and barometric pressure. The dataset was collected using a carbon dioxide gas analyzer and shower head chamber equilibrator by researchers from NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory.

Use Cases

• Calculating air-sea CO2 flux based on the difference between sea water fCO2 and interpolated air fCO2.
• Analyzing spatial variability of surface ocean carbon parameters along the cruise track.
• Validating ocean carbon models using in-situ measurements of CO2 fugacity and mole fraction.
• Studying the relationship between sea surface temperature, salinity, and carbon dioxide partial pressure.

Strengths

• Data originates from a NOAA research vessel using standardized instruments (carbon dioxide gas analyzer, shower head equilibrator).
• Provides simultaneous measurements of multiple related chemical, meteorological, and physical variables.
• Dataset is hosted on multiple authoritative platforms (NASA Earthdata, Data.gov), indicating curation and importance.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• The temporal coverage is limited to a four-day research cruise in 2012.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between sources (2012-09-05 vs. 2026-03-06).

Provenance

Source

Rik Wanninkhof and Denis Pierrot of NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory.

Collection Method

Surface underway observations collected from NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown during cruise RB1205.

Time Range

2012-09-02 to 2012-09-05

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:10:06.162080

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean