Saildrone1020: Surface Ocean CO2 and Environmental Parameters from the Southern Ocean

Surface underway measurements from the Autonomous Surface Vehicle Saildrone1020 document the partial pressure and fugacity of carbon dioxide in air and seawater across the South Atlantic, South Pacific, Indian, and Southern Oceans. The dataset includes concurrent measurements of sea surface temperature, salinity, barometric pressure, wind speed, and oxygen levels from January to August 2019. These parameters are critical for calculating air-sea CO2 fluxes and understanding oceanic carbon uptake in remote polar and subpolar regions.

Use Cases

• Calculating regional air-sea CO2 flux based on measured pCO2 differences and wind speed.
• Analyzing the relationship between sea surface temperature, salinity, and carbon dioxide solubility.
• Validating satellite-derived sea surface temperature and salinity products with in-situ measurements.
• Studying seasonal carbon cycle dynamics in the Southern Ocean during the austral summer and autumn.

Strengths

• Covers a wide geographic range across four major ocean basins, including the data-sparse Southern Ocean.
• Provides a multi-parameter suite for carbon flux calculation, including xCO2, fCO2, pCO2, SST, SSS, and wind speed.
• Data collection spans a continuous 6.5-month period from January 19 to August 3, 2019.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, specific license, and detailed column names are not provided on any platform.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (2019-08-03 vs. 2026-03-05) create uncertainty about data versioning and maintenance.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Instrumented measurements from Autonomous Surface Vehicle ASV_Saildrone1020 using bubble-type equilibrators, CO2 gas analyzers, humidity sensors, oxygen meters, and thermosalinographs.

Time Range

2019-01-19 to 2019-08-03

Freshness

Last updated date conflicts: 2026-03-05 (datagov) and 2019-08-03 (nasa_earthdata).

Geography

South Atlantic Ocean, South Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean