Seaglider Oceanographic Measurements from North Pacific Gulf of Alaska 2008-2009

Ocean Station PAPA in the North Pacific Gulf of Alaska collected physical ocean data via a Seaglider SG120 autonomous underwater vehicle from August 30, 2008, to June 4, 2009. The dataset, archived by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), contains measurements from the vehicle's sawtooth gliding trajectory. Seagliders are buoyancy-driven vehicles developed by the University of Washington for long-duration, long-range scientific missions.

Use Cases

• Analyze vertical profiles of temperature and salinity to study water mass structure and mixing.
• Calculate depth-averaged currents from glider navigation data to map ocean circulation patterns.
• Model the sawtooth dive trajectory data to optimize autonomous underwater vehicle mission planning.
• Correlate sensor measurements with time and location to investigate seasonal changes in the Gulf of Alaska.

Strengths

• Data collected over a 9-month continuous deployment period from August 2008 to June 2009.
• Measurements from a proven Seaglider platform designed for missions of several thousand kilometers.
• Near real-time data reporting capability via wireless telemetry during the mission.

Limitations

• Specific row count, column details, and file formats are unknown from the provided metadata.
• Data is over 15 years old, which may limit relevance for studying recent oceanographic changes.
• Geographic coverage is limited to a single station (Ocean Station PAPA) in the Gulf of Alaska.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) under accession 0155598.

Collection Method

Data collected by a Seaglider SG120 autonomous underwater vehicle gliding on a programmed sawtooth trajectory.

Time Range

2008-08 30 to 2009-06-04

Freshness

Last updated 2009-06-04; historical dataset with no stated update frequency.

Geography

North Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Alaska, Ocean Station PAPA.