Great Lakes Glider Measurements of Temperature and Salinity

Physical oceanographic data from a Slocum glider deployment in the Great Lakes from October 30 to November 4, 2015. The University of Minnesota Duluth's Large Lakes Observatory gathered measurements of temperature, conductivity, salinity, and density. Data was archived by the National Centers for Environmental Information.

Use Cases

• Analyze vertical profiles of water temperature and salinity to identify thermocline and halocline structures.
• Model water density variations from temperature and conductivity measurements to study stratification dynamics.
• Correlate glider trajectory data with physical property measurements to map spatial gradients in the Great Lakes.
• Validate regional climate or hydrodynamic models using in-situ temperature and salinity records from a specific time period.

Strengths

• Data contains core physical oceanographic variables: temperature, conductivity, salinity, and density.
• Measurements were collected via an autonomous glider platform, providing continuous spatial coverage along its trajectory.
• Dataset underwent quality checks for file format compliance by the National Glider Data Assembly Center before archival.

Limitations

• Dataset covers a limited temporal range of only six days in late 2015.
• Specific sample size, spatial resolution, and data granularity are unknown from the description.
• Lack of documented column names and sample data hinders immediate understanding of data structure.

Provenance

Source

University of Minnesota Duluth - Large Lakes Observatory, funded by Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS).

Collection Method

Measurements gathered by a Slocum glider, processed and aggregated by the IOOS National Glider Data Assembly Center.

Time Range

2015-10-30 to 2015-11-04

Freshness

Single deployment from 2015; no update frequency indicated.

Geography

Great Lakes (deployment location 'gichigami' suggests Lake Superior).