Great Lakes Glider Trajectory Profile Data for Physical Oceanography

Physical oceanographic measurements collected by a Slocum glider deployed in the Great Lakes from August 9 to 19, 2016. The dataset contains profiles of temperature, conductivity, salinity, and density along the glider's trajectory. Data were gathered by the University of Minnesota Duluth's Large Lakes Observatory and archived by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.

Use Cases

• Analyze temperature and salinity profiles to identify thermal stratification and mixing layers in the Great Lakes.
• Model water density variations from conductivity and temperature measurements to study internal wave dynamics.
• Correlate glider trajectory coordinates with physical property measurements for spatial analysis of water masses.
• Validate regional hydrodynamic models using in-situ time-series data for conductivity and density.

Strengths

• Data covers a continuous 11-day deployment period in August 2016.
• Includes four core physical oceanographic variables: temperature, conductivity, salinity, and density.
• Processed and aggregated into a single netCDF file by the IOOS National Glider Data Assembly Center for compliance.

Limitations

• Dataset is limited to a single, short deployment period of 11 days.
• Geographic scope is restricted to the specific trajectory of one glider deployment in the Great Lakes.
• No information is provided on the vertical or horizontal resolution of the profile measurements.

Provenance

Source

University of Minnesota Duluth - Large Lakes Observatory, via NOAA NCEI (Accession 0182326).

Collection Method

In-situ measurements collected by a Slocum underwater glider.

Time Range

2016-08-09 to 2016-08-19

Freshness

One-time deployment; data is from 2016.

Geography

Great Lakes (specific glider deployment track).