Antarctic Glider Physical Oceanographic Profile Data

Hourly dives to 100 meters by glider RU24 captured physical oceanographic properties in the Southern Oceans. Rutgers University deployed this glider from January 26 to February 11, 2015, to study phytoplankton response in the rapidly warming West Antarctic Peninsula. The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) archives this data from the IOOS National Glider Data Assembly Center.

Use Cases

• Analyze temperature and salinity time-series to model water column structure changes near Palmer Deep.
• Map glider trajectory coordinates against conductivity and density measurements to identify frontal zones.
• Correlate dive profile depth data with physical property readings to study vertical mixing processes.
• Use the time-stamped, geolocated records as validation data for regional ocean circulation models.

Strengths

• Data covers a 17-day continuous mission with hourly sampling dives.
• Measurements include key physical properties: temperature, salinity, conductivity, and density.
• Data underwent quality checks for netCDF convention compliance by IOOS NGDAC.

Limitations

• Sample size is limited to a single glider deployment over a short 17-day period.
• Data is from 2015 and may not reflect current oceanographic conditions.
• Specific row counts and data resolution details are not provided in the metadata.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) via IOOS National Glider Data Assembly Center.

Collection Method

Collected via autonomous underwater glider (RU24) performing programmed hourly dives.

Time Range

2015-01-26 to 2015-02-11

Freshness

Data collection ended on 2015-02-11; it is a static archival dataset.

Geography

Southern Oceans, specifically the West Antarctic Peninsula region near Palmer Deep.