Short Name:
SPURS2_METEO

SPURS-2 Research vessel Meteorological series data for the E. Tropical Pacific field campaign R/V Revelle cruises

The SPURS (Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study) project is a NASA-funded oceanographic process study and associated field program that aim to elucidate key mechanisms responsible for near-surface salinity variations in the oceans. The project is comprised of two field campaigns and a series of cruises in regions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans exhibiting salinity extremes. SPURS employs a suite of state-of-the-art in-situ sampling technologies that, combined with remotely sensed salinity fields from the Aquarius/SAC-D, SMAP and SMOS satellites, provide a detailed characterization of salinity structure over a continuum of spatio-temporal scales. The SPURS-2 campaign involved two month-long cruises by the R/V Revelle in August 2016 and October 2017 combined with complementary sampling on a more continuous basis over this period by the schooner Lady Amber. Focused around a central mooring located near 10N,125W, the objective of SPURS-2 was to study the dynamics of the rainfall-dominated surface ocean at the western edge of the eastern Pacific fresh pool subject to high seasonal variability and strong zonal flows associated with the North Equatorial Current and Countercurrent. A ship mast meteorological sensor package with an additional set of sophisticated sensors, including a direct covariance flux package was set up on both SPURS-2 Revelle cruises. These provided georeferenced, along-track atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity, IR/visible radiation, rain, and wind speed and air-sea flux measurements. Resulting data are packaged in netCDF files (one per cruise) with standards compliant metadata.

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