S-MODE: Saildrone Ocean and Atmospheric Measurements

Approximately 300 km offshore of San Francisco, Saildrone unmanned surface vehicles collected in-situ measurements during the Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) pilot in October 2021 and an intensive operating period in Fall 2022. The dataset contains 5-minute averaged sensor data, including upper ocean currents, temperature, salinity, Chlorophyll-a fluorescence, dissolved oxygen, winds, air temperature, and surface radiation. It aims to understand how short-scale ocean dynamics influence vertical exchanges of physical and biological variables.

Use Cases

• Analyzing sub-mesoscale ocean current variability based on Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) data.
• Investigating phytoplankton biomass distribution based on Chlorophyll-a fluorescence measurements.
• Studying air-sea heat and gas exchange based on near-surface temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen concentration.
• Validating satellite-derived sea surface parameters based on in-situ temperature, salinity, and radiation data.
• Assessing bio-optical relationships in the upper ocean based on additional non-ADCP measurements from IOP1.

Strengths

• Contains multi-sensor data from autonomous platforms, integrating oceanic (currents, temperature, salinity, bio-optics) and atmospheric (winds, air temperature, radiation) measurements.
• Data is temporally resolved with high-frequency (1 Hz) measurements averaged into consistent 5-minute bins.
• Covers two distinct field campaigns: a two-week pilot in October 2021 and a longer intensive operating period in Fall 2022.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and a complete column list are unavailable across all sources.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.
• The last updated date conflicts between sources (2022-10 31 and 2026-04-09), creating uncertainty about data currency.

Provenance

Source

POCLOUD (as listed on nasa_earthdata)

Collection Method

In-situ measurements collected by wind-and-solar-powered Saildrone unmanned surface vehicles.

Time Range

October 2021 and Fall 2022

Freshness

2026-04 09 (most recent update cited)

Geography

Approximately 300 km offshore of San Francisco, California, USA