S-MODE: Shipboard Hydrographic and Bio-Optical Ocean Profiles

S-MODE Shipboard uCTD and EcoCTD Measurements Version 1 contains underway conductivity, temperature, and depth profiles from the Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment field campaign. The Level 2 dataset merges standard hydrographic data with bio-optical measurements like dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll fluorescence, binned onto a 5-meter vertical grid. Data collection occurred approximately 300 km offshore of San Francisco during a pilot in October 2021 and intensive periods in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical structure of water properties based on binned 5m grid profiles.
• Investigating relationships between physical dynamics and biological variables like chlorophyll fluorescence.
• Studying sub-mesoscale ocean processes and their role in vertical exchange.
• Calibrating or validating satellite ocean color data with in-situ backscatter measurements.

Strengths

• Combines standard hydrographic (conductivity, temperature, pressure) with concurrent bio optical data (dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll fluorescence, backscatter).
• Data is processed and gridded, with profiles binned onto a consistent 5m vertical grid.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA EarthData and Data.gov signals institutional importance and curation.

Limitations

• Key metadata like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (2026-04-09 vs 2023-05-31) create uncertainty about data freshness.
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.

Provenance

Source

Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) field campaign, organization listed as POCLOUD.

Collection Method

Shipboard underway measurements from a standard UCDT probe and an augmented EcoCDT probe.

Time Range

Pilot campaign in October 2021, plus Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 intensive operating periods.

Freshness

Last updated dates conflict: 2026-04-09 on two platforms and 2023-05-31 on another.

Geography

Approximately 300 km offshore of San Francisco.