SWOT Satellite Calibration CTD and Water Sample Data from California Offshore

Shipboard conductivity, temperature, depth (CTD) and water sample measurements were collected 300 km offshore of California for the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission's post-launch calibration and validation. Data originate from four research cruises aboard the Bold Horizon and Sally Ride vessels, spanning from February 2023 to November 2024. This collection provides a calibrated reference for mooring sensors to enable steric height calculations for satellite validation.

Use Cases

• Calibrating mooring-based CTD sensors using shipboard reference measurements for the SWOT field campaign.
• Calculating steric height profiles from calibrated temperature and salinity data to validate SWOT satellite altimetry.
• Analyzing oceanographic conditions (temperature, salinity, density, pressure) at a site 300 km offshore of California.
• Studying the irregular spatial and depth sampling pattern resulting from instrument cross-calibration procedures during research cruises.

Strengths

• Data collection spans a 21-month period from February 23, 2023 to November 2, 2024, providing temporal coverage of the SWOT cal/val phase.
• Includes measurements from four dedicated research cruises on two vessels (Bold Horizon and Sally Ride), ensuring controlled data acquisition.
• Serves as a common, well-calibrated reference for adjusting mooring sensor data, a critical step for steric height calculation.

Limitations

• The sampling pattern is irregular; not all CTD casts were at mooring sites or covered the full water column due to cross-calibration procedures.
• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and exact file size are unavailable across all listed platforms.
• Conflicting license information exists between platforms (specified as 'other-license-specified' and 'None').

Provenance

Source

POCLOUD (as listed on nasa_earthdata).

Collection Method

Measurements from shipboard instruments deployed during four research cruises, with some casts used for cross-calibration of mooring sensors.

Time Range

February 23, - 2023 to November 2, 2024

Freshness

2026-03-12 21:10:22.098691

Geography

A site approximately 300 km offshore of California.