Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/SMODE_L2_SHIPBOARD_CTD_V1
SMODE_L2_SHIPBOARD_CTD_V1·v1·dataset

Ocean temperature and saltiness by depth, from ships

S-MODE L2 Shipboard Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth Measurements Version 1
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 2 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Profiles of ocean temperature and saltiness measured at different depths, recorded as an instrument package was lowered from a ship and brought back up. Some casts also include biological data.

How it's made. Collected directly from the research vessel Oceanus during the S-MODE field campaign off San Francisco, using a CTD sensor rosette lowered through the water.

How & where you'd use it. Helps researchers understand how small-scale ocean swirls move heat, salt, and life between the surface and the deep, and serves as ground-truth for satellite ocean measurements.

What's measured

OCEANS › SALINITY/DENSITYOCEANS › OCEAN OPTICS › ATTENUATION/TRANSMISSIONOCEANS › OCEAN OPTICS › PHOTOSYNTHETICALLY ACTIVE RADIATIONOCEANS › OCEAN CHEMISTRY › OXYGENOCEANS › OCEAN CHEMISTRY › CHLOROPHYLLOCEANS › OCEAN CHEMISTRY › NITRATEOCEANS › SALINITY/DENSITY › CONDUCTIVITYOCEANS › OCEAN TEMPERATURE › OCEAN TEMPERATURE PROFILESOCEANS › SALINITY/DENSITY › SALINITYOCEANS › SALINITY/DENSITY › OCEAN SALINITY › OCEAN SALINITY PROFILES

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2021-08-01 → 2023-05-05
  • Measured byShips (CTD)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-125.4, 36.3, -122.9, 38.1
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
  • Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
  • Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description

This dataset contains shipboard conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) measurements taken during the Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) field campaign. The experiment was conducted approximately 300 km offshore of San Francisco, during a pilot campaign that spanned two weeks in October 2021, and two intensive operating periods in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. S-MODE aims to understand how ocean dynamics acting on short spatial scales influence the vertical exchange of physical and biological variables in the ocean. The shipboard CTD rosette is cast from the R/V Oceanus where it records ocean temperature, conductivity, and pressure as it descends to depth and then returns to the surface. IOP1 and IOP2 measurements also contain biological data. Data are available in netCDF format.

Get the data

smode_l2_shipboard_ctd_v1_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SMODE_L2_SHIPBOARD_CTD_V1",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from POCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.