| Contributors | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Davis, Cabell S. | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) | Principal Investigator |
| Groman, Robert C. | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI BCO-DMO) | BCO-DMO Data Manager |
Underway temperature, salinity, density, fluorometry, PAR, oxygen, roll, pitch, altitude, distance, date, position, depth, water depth and turbidity measurements collected during the VPR survey by Scientific Computer System (SCS) software developed at NOAA for the NOAA fleet and the instrumentation on the VPR instrument. SCS data are generally only collected while the ship is underway. A variety of sensors can be connected to the system. Please see the list of instruments for specific information.
The SCS data files logging the raw data are set to break once a day at GMT midnight to make acquisition, plotting, processing and transfer easier.
The following information is quoted from SOI's "Guide to SCS Data Sensors and Formats SCS v 4.6.0", by MT Colleen Peters, 2013. There is additional information available in this document that may be relevant to users of these data.
Data were received as a Matlab file. The file was processed using the JGOFS/GLOBEC Matlab method to enable it to be served.
| File |
|---|
sensor_FK003.csv (Comma Separated Values (.csv), 173.32 MB) MD5:4b3fbda9ce268490f546ac9dc8007cae Primary data file for dataset ID 3927 |
| Parameter | Description | Units |
| year | Year the data were collected | |
| cruiseid | Cruise identification | |
| yearday_0 | Decimal year day in GMT starting with January 1 as day 0. Called time in the original Matlab file. | |
| lat | Decimal latitude with north being positive. Called latitude in the orginal Matlab file. | decimal degrees |
| lon | Longitude decimal degrees with east being positive. Called longitude in the original Matlab file. | decimal degrees |
| depth | Depth of VPR in meters from the VPR SBE49 CTD. These values are shown as negative in the original Matlab file. | meters |
| temp | Temperature of seawater in degrees Celcius from the VPR SBE49 CTD. Called temperature in the original Matlab file. | degrees Celcius |
| sal | Salinity from VPR SBE49 CTD | unitless |
| density | Seawater density as Sigma-t, computed from temperature, salinity, and pressure | |
| fluor | Fluorescence output in millivolts from a/d fluor channel. Called fluorescence in the original Matlab file. | millivolts |
| turbidity | Turbidity in millivolts from a/d obs channel | millivolts |
| par | PAR as 1000*10^(0.004883*millivolts). Called PAR in the original Matlab file. | 1000*10^(0.004883*millivolts) |
| depth_w | Bottom depth from the ship fathometer (EK60 on Falkor). Originally called Bottom Depth in the Matlab file. | meters |
| oxygen | Oxygen from a/d SBE43 O2 sensor. | millivolts |
| roll | Roll angle, (degrees, positive: roll to right?) | degrees |
| pitch | Pitch angle, (degrees, positive up) | degrees |
| altitude | Altitude from altimeter in millivolts from a/d | millivolts |
| distance | Cumulative distance traveled by the ship during the tow, in kilimeters | kilometers |
| month | Month the data were collected | |
| day | Day of the month the data were collected. | |
| ISO_DateTime_UTC | Date and time the data were collected in ISO8600 standard format |
| Website | |
| Platform | R/V Falkor |
| Start Date | 2012-07-02 |
| End Date | 2012-07-28 |
| Description | The deployment crossed the North Atlantic at high latitude to conduct a high-resolution sampling transect of mesozooplankton, marine "snow" (biogenic aggregates), and environmental variables from the northwestern UK shelf to southern Greenland via a route south of Iceland, thence south across the Labrador Sea and the Grand Banks to the slope water south of Nova Scotia, Canada, to Woods Hole, MA. It was the transatlantic maiden voyage of the Schmidt Ocean Institute's (SOI) new research vessel, R/V Falkor. |
This project used the opportunity of a ship crossing the North Atlantic at high latitude to conduct a high-resolution sampling transect of mesozooplankton, marine "snow" (biogenic aggregates), and environmental variables from the northwestern UK shelf to southern Greenland via a route south of Iceland, thence south across the Labrador Sea and the Grand Banks to the slope water south of Nova Scotia, Canada. Sampling was done with the fast-tow Video Plankton Recorder II (VPRII). The VPR enables non-destructive sampling of fragile plankton in situ, and through rapid towyo deployments (continuous raising and lowering while under way), it provides high vertical (top 150 m) and horizontal (1km towyo spacing) resolution of robust as well as fragile plankton and aggregates and numerous environmental variables. The VPRII had been deployed in several locations around the world, but, until this cruise, there was no comparable data set for the far North Atlantic, an area of intense ecological interest. This opportunity arose from the transatlantic maiden voyage of the Schmidt Ocean Institute's (SOI) new research vessel, R/V Falkor, from the UK to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from July 2-28, 2012. SOI funded ship costs for the transit, making the underway VPR survey a cost-effective way to sample. This project collected a major data set that can be quickly processed (acoustic, hydrographic, automated image analysis) and will be available to the community soon. Two Ph.D. students participated in the cruise, adding to their training in oceanography and high latitude marine science.
This project was funded by the National Science Foundation. In addition, the VPRII upgrade was supported by the Marine Science and Technology Foundation (WHOI #17073) and the Schmidt Ocean Institute provided the ship itself, the R/V Falkor.