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| You are here: NODC Home > Access Data > Gulf of Mexico Data and Information > Deepwater Horizon Incident Support > Ocean Profile Data |
Ocean Profile Data: Deepwater Horizon SupportDeepwater Horizon Support Page [ Gordon Gunter CTD/XBT | AXBT | Gliders | Floats | Unidentified-Platforms | Walton Smith XBT ] Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) and eXpendable BathyThermograph (XBT) Observations
What is a CTD? An ocean instrument that has a combination of a pressure sensor (measured pressure is converted to depth), a resistance temperature measurement device (usually a platinum thermometer), and a conductivity sensor used to estimate salinity. CTDs are usually mounted on a metal frame and lowered through the water column suspended from a cable. What is an XBT? It's a probe that is dropped from a ship and measures the water temperature as it falls. A very thin wire transmits the temperature data to the ship where it is recorded for later analysis. The probe is designed to fall at a known rate, so that the depth of the probe can be inferred from the time lapsed from launch. Example CTD Plot
 Gordon Gunter Stations
If you would like to interact with these maps within Google Earth, please download the appropriate .kmz file. Airborne eXpendable BathyThermograph (AXBT) ObservationsAXBT data and plots are available from two NOAA aircraft. The location of AXBT deployments (circles) for each mission are shown on the map below. This data was collected on various days between May 18 and June 25, 2010 (see inventory files below). NOAA42 Data: Plots, CSV, NetCDF, GTSPP ASCII, Inventory, Google Earth .kmz If you would like to interact with these maps within Google Earth, please download the appropriate .kmz file. What is an AXBT? It's a water temperature probe, like the shipboard XBT explained above, except that it is dropped from an aircraft. Glider DataGlider 48900 collected 893 profiles of temperature and 893 profiles of salinity (1786 total) from May 28, 2010 - June 21, 2010: Glider 48901 collected 1230 profiles of temperature and 1230 profiles of salinity (2460 total) from May 28, 2010 - June 4, 2010: Glider 48902 collected 264 profiles of temperature and 264 profiles of salinity (528 total) from May 28, 2010 - June 28, 2010: Glider 48903 collected 797 profiles of temperature and 797 profiles of salinity (1594 total) from June 4, 2010 - June 25, 2010: Glider 48904 collected 2166 profiles of temperature and 2166 profiles of salinity (4332 total) from June 4, 2010 - June 27, 2010: Glider 48905 collected 1115 profiles of temperature and 1115 profiles of salinity (2230 total) from June 8, 2010 - June 13, 2010: Glider 48906 collected 1115 profiles of temperature and 1115 profiles of salinity (2230 total) from June 8, 2010 - June 13, 2010: Glider 48908 collected 1115 profiles of temperature and 1115 profiles of salinity (2230 total) from June 8, 2010 - June 13, 2010: Glider 48909 collected 1115 profiles of temperature and 1115 profiles of salinity (2230 total) from June 8, 2010 - June 13, 2010: What is a Glider? An underwater glider is a type of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that uses small changes in its buoyancy in conjunction with wings to convert vertical motion to horizontal, and thereby propel itself forward with very low power consumption. Gliders typically take measurements such as temperature, conductivity (to calculate salinity), currents, chlorophyll fluorescence, optical backscatter, bottom depth, and (occasionally) acoustic backscatter. They navigate with the help of periodic surface GPS fixes, pressure sensors, tilt sensors, and magnetic compasses. Gliders can be built to withstand various depths and pressures. If you would like to interact with this map within Google Earth, please download the appropriate .kmz file. Float DataFloat 4901265 collected 9 profiles of temperature and 9 profiles of salinity (18 total) from May 24, 2010 - June 25, 2010: Float 4901266 collected 9 profiles of temperature and 9 profiles of salinity (18 total) from May 26, 2010 - June 27, 2010: Float 4901267 collected 8 profiles of temperature and 8 profiles of salinity (16 total) from May 26, 2010 - June 23, 2010: Float 4901268 collected 7 profiles of temperature and 7 profiles of salinity (14 total) from May 26, 2010 - June 19, 2010: Float 4901269 collected 8 profiles of temperature and 8 profiles of salinity (16 total) from May 26, 2010 - June 23, 2010: Float 4901270 collected 8 profiles of temperature and 8 profiles of salinity (16 total) from May 27, 2010 - June 24, 2010: What is a Float? Floats, sometimes referred to as ocean profiling floats, are designed to drift at a fixed pressure and depth. After a certain time period, the floats move upward in the water column collecting profiles of pressure, temperature, and salinity data on their way to the surface. Once at the surface, the floats remain there for under a day, transmitting the data collected by satellite back to NOAA, and thereby allowing one to determine their surface drift. They then sink again, and repeat their mission. Floats usually have a nominal lifetime of five years, and will yield valuable information about large-scale ocean water property distributions and currents, including their variability over time. If you would like to interact with this map within Google Earth, please download the appropriate .kmz file. Unidentified-Platforms DataIncluded in these files are data from several vessels, including one aircraft survey. Several surveys were conducted April 22, 2010 - June 11, 2010 and posted to the GTS as unidentified vessels, so all the call signs were set to "SHIP". Temperature and salinity values were measured from 35 CTDs and 54 XBTs and are available in CSV (comma separated value), NetCDF (network common data format), and GTSPP ASCII formats (format description). An inventory file is available. The "plots" folder contains plots of each vertical profile, and a .kmz file is available for Google Earth display. If you would like to interact with the map below (i.e., click on stations to get more information), please install Google Earth and use the .kmz file for each. Walton Smith eXpendable BathyThermograph (XBT) ObservationsThese data from June 7th to June 10th, 2010 have 41 stations with 41 temperature profiles. See map below. The data are available in three commonly used formats, namely CSV (comma separated value), NetCDF (network common data form) and GTSPP ASCII formats (format description). A NetCDF inventory file is available. In addition, the “plots” folder contains plots of each vertical profile. A .kmz file is available for Google Earth display. What is an XBT? It's a probe that is dropped from a ship and measures the water temperature as it falls. A very thin wire transmits the temperature data to the ship where it is recorded for later analysis. The probe is designed to fall at a known rate, so that the depth of the probe can be inferred from the time lapsed from launch. Example data points
 Walton Smith Stations
 Interact with the Walton Smith XBT Google Map If you would like to interact with this map within Google Earth, please download the appropriate .kmz file. |
| Last modified: Wed, 21-Jul-2010 18:23 UTC | NODC.Webmaster@noaa.gov | ||
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Water temperature and salinity data were collected by the NOAA Ship 
