Ocean Glider Trajectory Profile Data from Mid-Atlantic Bight 2018

August 6 to October 21, 2018 data from a glider mission measuring physical oceanographic properties in the Mid-Atlantic Bight. The dataset contains measurements from glider BLUE deployed by the University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth, focusing on seasonal-varying features of the Mid-Atlantic Cold Pool. It was archived by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.

Use Cases

• Analyze temperature and salinity profiles to study the structure and dynamics of the Mid-Atlantic Cold Pool.
• Map the glider's saw-tooth trajectory against conductivity and density measurements to understand spatial variability.
• Correlate optical measurements of chlorophyll and CDOM with physical properties like temperature for biogeochemical studies.
• Validate regional ocean models using high-resolution time-series data of density and conductivity over a 100km triangular path.

Strengths

• Data covers a continuous 90-day mission plan with multiple triangular trajectory repeats.
• Includes multiple concurrent physical and optical measurements per profile (CTD, chlorophyll, backscatter, CDOM).
• Checked for compliance to netCDF conventions and aggregated by the National Glider Data Assembly Center.

Limitations

• Limited temporal scope, covering only a single 2.5-month deployment in 2018.
• Geographic coverage is restricted to a specific triangular path in the Mid-Atlantic Bight.
• Unknown sample size and row count for the aggregated netCDF file.

Provenance

Source

Integrated Ocean Observing System's National Glider Data Assembly Center (IOOS NGDAC), archived by NOAA NCEI.

Collection Method

Measured by a sensor-equipped ocean glider (CTD, optical sensors) following a pre-planned saw-tooth trajectory.

Time Range

2018-08-06 to 2018-10-21

Freshness

Data collection ended in October 2018; no updates indicated.

Geography

Mid-Atlantic Bight, from west of Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard, MA, along a ~100km triangular path.