Saildrone 1021: Surface pCO2 and Ocean Chemistry in the Arctic, 2018

North Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, and Arctic Ocean surface data were collected by the autonomous Saildrone 1021 from June to September 2018. The dataset includes measurements of carbon dioxide fugacity and partial pressure in air and seawater, sea surface temperature, salinity, pH, and atmospheric water vapor. These continuous underway measurements support research on ocean-atmosphere carbon flux and acidification in high-latitude seas.

Use Cases

• Calculating air-sea CO2 flux gradients using the difference in fugacity (dfCO2) and partial pressure (dpCO2).
• Modeling ocean acidification impacts by correlating seawater pH with sea surface temperature and salinity.
• Validating satellite-derived sea surface temperature and salinity products with in-situ measurements.
• Assessing the performance of autonomous surface vehicles for continuous chemical and meteorological data collection.

Strengths

• Provides continuous, high-frequency surface underway measurements across a wide geographic area spanning the North Pacific to the Arctic Ocean.
• Contains multiple derived parameters for carbon dioxide analysis, including wet/dry mole fractions, fugacity, and partial pressure, enabling robust flux calculations.
• Data is hosted on multiple authoritative platforms (NASA Earthdata, Data.gov), indicating validation and importance for the research community.

Limitations

• Conflicting information exists regarding the vehicle identifier (Saildrone 1021 vs. 1020) and the temporal coverage end date (2018-09-25 vs. 2018-10-06).
• Critical metadata is missing from all sources, including column names, row count, file size, specific license, and detailed authorship.
• The dataset's freshness is unclear; the most recent platform update is listed as 2026, but this may reflect metadata revision rather than new data.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), collected via Autonomous Surface Vehicle Saildrone.

Collection Method

Surface underway continuous measurements from an autonomous platform equipped with a Licor 820 infrared gas analyzer and other sensors.

Time Range

2018-06-30 to 2018-10-06 (widest inferred range from conflicting sources).

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:15:58.580531

Geography

North Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, Arctic Ocean.