SWOT Prelaunch Campaign: Ocean CTD Profiles from Prawler Mooring

Approximately 300 kilometers west of Monterey, California, this dataset contains conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) profiles from a Prawler profiler mooring deployed between September 2019 and January 2020. The data was collected as part of the SWOT satellite prelaunch field campaign to test instruments for calibration and validation requirements. The campaign also included other moorings, a glider, and seafloor pressure instruments.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite-derived sea surface height data based on in-situ CTD profiles.
• Assessing instrument platform performance for oceanographic monitoring based on the campaign's stated objective.
• Analyzing ocean water column properties (temperature, salinity, pressure) for a specific region and time period.
• Supporting the calibration of models or remote sensing algorithms using concurrent, multi-instrument field data.

Strengths

• Data is part of a coordinated multi-instrument field campaign (two other CTD moorings, a glider, pressure recorders) designed for a specific scientific objective.
• Covers a defined four-month time range (September 2019 to January 2020) in a targeted geographic location.
• Hosted by a major space agency (NASA) and appears on multiple data platforms, indicating curation and importance.

Limitations

• Column names and data structure are not provided in any source, hindering immediate analysis.
• Conflicting 'last updated' metadata (2026 vs. 2020) suggests potential metadata management issues.
• License is specified as 'other-license-specified' without details, requiring further investigation for reuse.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Deployed from a Prawler profiler mooring during a field campaign.

Time Range

September 2019 to January 2020

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:47:31.146070

Geography

Ocean region approximately 300 km west of Monterey, California, USA.