ASVCO2: WaveGlider pCO2 and Sea Surface Measurements in the North Pacific

From July 18 to October 18, 2012, two Autonomous Surface Vehicles (WaveGlider1760 and WaveGlider1741) collected surface underway measurements in the North Pacific Ocean off the US West Coast. The dataset includes mole fractions, fugacity, and partial pressure of carbon dioxide in both seawater and air, alongside sea surface temperature, salinity, pH, and oxygen ratios. These measurements are designed to study air-sea gas exchange and ocean acidification processes.

Use Cases

• Calculating air-sea CO2 flux gradients based on the difference between seawater and air fugacity (dfCO2).
• Calibrating or validating satellite-derived sea surface temperature (SST) and salinity (SSS) products with in-situ measurements.
• Assessing ocean acidification trends by analyzing pH and pCO2 SW (wet) time series.
• Studying diurnal or seasonal variability in surface ocean chemistry and meteorology from the three-month time series.

Strengths

• Provides simultaneous, co-located measurements of over 15 related chemical, physical, and meteorological parameters from two autonomous platforms.
• Covers a specific three-month field campaign (2012-07-18 to 2012-10-18) with high temporal resolution typical of underway systems.
• Hosted by authoritative sources (NOAA, NASA NCEI), indicating formal data stewardship.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, specific column names, and license are not provided in the available descriptions.
• The 'last updated' date conflicts between sources (2012-10-18 vs. 2026-03-05), creating uncertainty about metadata freshness.
• The dataset is over a decade old, limiting its utility for analyzing recent oceanographic conditions.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Data collected via Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASV_WaveGlider1760, ASV_WaveGlider1741) equipped with bubble-type equilibrators and infrared Licor 820 sensors.

Time Range

2012-07-18 to 2012-10-18

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:41:20.516623 (from datagov, though this may be a metadata update rather than data update)

Geography

North Pacific Ocean, US West Coast area