S-MODE: Shipboard uCTD and EcoCTD Ocean Profiles

Shipboard Underway CTD (uCTD) and EcoCTD measurements were collected during the Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) pilot campaign in October 2021. The dataset contains vertical profiles of hydrographic and bio-optical properties, including conductivity, temperature, pressure, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll-fluorescence, and particulate backscatter. Level 3 data are structured in netCDF format with dimensions of profile number and depth.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical exchange of physical and biological variables based on concurrent hydrographic and bio-optical profiles.
• Studying sub-mesoscale ocean dynamics based on high-resolution shipboard measurements taken offshore of San Francisco.
• Validating ocean models with in-situ conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) measurements.
• Investigating relationships between chlorophyll-fluorescence, particulate backscatter, and physical water properties.
• Assessing dissolved oxygen concentration variability in relation to temperature and salinity profiles.

Strengths

• Contains concurrent measurements from two specialized probes (standard uCTD and augmented EcoCTD) for multi-parameter analysis.
• Data collection was focused on a specific scientific campaign (S-MODE pilot) over two weeks in October 2021, providing a coherent snapshot.
• Dataset is available on multiple platforms (Data.gov and NASA Earthdata), indicating curation and importance.

Limitations

• Column names and exact row/record counts are not provided in any source, limiting understanding of data structure.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist across platforms (2026-03-12, 2026-04-09, 2021-11-30), creating uncertainty about version currency.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without details on reuse restrictions.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Shipboard underway measurements from standard uCTD and augmented EcoCTD probes.

Time Range

October 2021 (two-week campaign)

Freshness

2026-04-09 22:24:01.232140

Geography

Approximately 300 km offshore of San Francisco, Pacific Ocean.