Cruise CTD Overview

This sea water property (profile) data submission comprises the final Conductivity, Temperature, Depth (CTD) dataset collected aboard the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster during two merged collaborative fisheries oceanography surveys (described in detail below) conducted from April 28, 2016 to June 25, 2016. The vessel's Sea-Bird Electronics (SBE) 911plus CTD system was operated at 119 discrete station locations along the survey track. At each location, the CTD package was lowered from the surface to a predetermined depth, sampling continuously. The CTD was configured with a pressure sensor, dual temperature, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen sensors, a chlorophyll a (chl_a) fluorometer, a colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) fluorometer, and an altimeter. The sensor package was attached to a frame configured with a 24-bottle water sampler and 10-liter Niskin water sampling bottles.

The raw CTD data were post-processed to a final state using the SBE Data Processing Software package (Windows-based, publicly available at www.seabird.com). The specific subroutines applied to the data are outlined in the header of each ascii data file found in the dataset (.cnv files). The header of each file also includes the time and location of the cast. In addition to the ascii data in this data submission, .jpg plots of each CTD cast have also been included. These data were not calibrated to bottle samples and are considered final.

To describe how ctd data was processed on Cruises NF-16-02 and NF-16-03