SWOT Postlaunch Oceanography Field Campaign: L2 Mooring Data

NASA's SWOT Postlaunch Oceanography Field Campaign L2 Moorings collection provides calibrated oceanographic measurements from 11 mooring sites 300 km offshore of California. Data includes surface air pressure, GPS, current velocity, and conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) profiles, collected primarily during the 2023 satellite calibration and validation phase. The S2 site includes extended data from the NOPP-GIW internal wave study, covering September 2023 to October 2024.

Use Cases

• Validating SWOT satellite sea surface height data using in-situ mooring measurements.
• Studying internal wave dynamics using extended time-series data from the NOPP-GIW project.
• Analyzing ocean current velocity and temperature profiles for physical oceanography research.
• Calibrating and quality-checking L1 instrument data against ship-based CTD casts and water samples.

Strengths

• Data includes calibration adjustments based on ship-based CTD casts and water samples, indicating a high level of quality control.
• Collection combines data from a focused calibration campaign (11 sites in 2023) with an extended research project (NOPP-GIW from Sep 2023-Oct 2024).
• Data is provided at native instrumental resolution in time and space, preserving original measurement detail.

Limitations

• Column names and specific data structure are not provided in the available metadata.
• The dataset's size and row counts are unknown, limiting assessment of its scale.
• Sources show conflicting 'last updated' dates (2026-04-09 on datagov vs. 2023-10-09 on nasa_earthdata).

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Measurements from an array of oceanographic instruments deployed on moorings.

Time Range

February 2023 to October 2024

Freshness

2026-04-09

Geography

A site 300 km offshore of California, USA.