Seaglider Physical Oceanographic Measurements from Labrador Sea Deployment

Seaglider SG004 collected temperature, salinity, and depth-averaged current data during a 4-month mission in the Labrador Sea. This autonomous underwater vehicle from the University of Washington performed sawtooth dives from October 2003 to February 2004. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Centers for Environmental Information archives this dataset.

Use Cases

• Analyze temperature and salinity profiles to study water mass formation and mixing processes in the Labrador Sea.
• Calculate depth-averaged currents to investigate ocean circulation and eddy dynamics during the winter period.
• Model the sawtooth dive trajectory data to optimize autonomous underwater vehicle mission planning and energy efficiency.
• Correlate physical measurements with temporal stamps and geospatial coordinates to create time-series maps of ocean conditions.

Strengths

• Data collected over a continuous 4-month deployment from October 2003 to February 2004.
• Measurements include key physical oceanographic variables: temperature, salinity, and depth-averaged currents.
• Data originates from a scientifically designed autonomous platform operated by a leading oceanographic institution.

Limitations

• The exact number of data rows, sampling resolution, and column details are not specified.
• Dataset is from a single vehicle deployment, limiting spatial coverage to the glider's specific track.
• Data is from 2003-2004 and may not represent current oceanographic conditions.

Provenance

Source

University of Washington's School of Oceanography and Applied Physics Laboratory, archived by NOAA NCEI.

Collection Method

Collected by a buoyancy-driven Seaglider autonomous underwater vehicle performing pre-programmed sawtooth dives.

Time Range

2003-10-02 to 2004-02-10

Freshness

Last updated 2004-02 10; historical dataset with no stated update frequency.

Geography

Labrador Sea