Eastern Gulf of Mexico glider deployment M66 (2016-07-29 – 2016-08-12) – echosounder water column backscatter intensity

A Slocum glider was deployed in the eastern Gulf of Mexico off Tampa Bay in July and August 2016. As the glider traversed its transit path, measurements were collected at various depths from ~2 m to near the seafloor or up to 200 m. While the glider was deployed at sea, it surfaced and communicated to an onshore control station at predetermined intervals. A decimated selection of vehicle and science measurement was transmitted during the surface transmissions, and the relevant data became available through a USF web site. After the glider’s recovery at the end of the deployment, the complete measurement suite was downloaded from the vehicle, processed and becomes available through the USF site including a national data archive. The measurements in this data set included water column biomass estimates and the raw echosounder water column backscatter intensity measurements. Other data sets for this deployment included environmental water quality parameters and acoustic tag telemetry detections.

The glider was deployed on 2016-07-29 at the 30 m isobath. It traversed for a week to the northwest before turning around and returning along a similar route to the southeast. It was recovered on 2016-08-12 near the deployment site. The intent was for the glider to follow the progression of the Gulfstream Natural Gas Pipeline, collecting water quality and acoustic data sets.

The suite of related datasets includes results from gliders M66, M69, M70, and M72.

Glider M66: water quality variables (FL.x707.000:0001, https://doi.org/10.7266/N72N50PF), tag telemetry (FL.x707.000:0002, https://doi.org/10.7266/n7-ccc2-s109), and echosounder backscatter intensity (FL.x707.000:0003, https://doi.org/10.7266/n7-9yq5-w169).

Glider M69: water quality variables (FL.x707.000:0004, https://doi.org/10.7266/n7-n30g-bw27); acoustic tag telemetry receiver detections (FL.x707.000:0005, https://doi.org/10.7266/n7-406m-ak69), echo sounder backscatter (FL.x707.000:0007, https://doi.org/10.7266/n7-4skm-bj34), and passive acoustic recordings (FL.x707.000:0006, https://doi.org/10.7266/n7-5y6c-sj73).

Glider M70: water quality variables (FL.x707.000:0010, https://doi.org/10.7266/g51f95wz), and tag telemetry (FL.x707.000:0008, https://doi.org/10.7266/p2ymsrp4).

Glider M72: water quality variables (FL.x707.000:0011, https://doi.org/10.7266/ehj8evgw), and tag telemetry (FL.x707.000:0009, https://doi.org/10.7266/9va17amx).

2016年7月至8月，一台斯洛科姆水下滑翔机（Slocum glider）被部署于墨西哥湾东部坦帕湾外海海域。该滑翔机沿航行路径行进期间，在约2米至海底附近或最大200米的多个深度采集了多组测量数据。作业过程中，滑翔机会按预定周期上浮并与陆上控制站建立通信；上浮通信阶段会传输经精简筛选的载具状态与科学测量数据，相关成果可通过美国南佛罗里达大学（University of South Florida, USF）官网获取。部署任务结束并回收滑翔机后，可从载具中下载完整的测量套件数据，经处理后，完整数据集将通过USF官网及国家数据档案库对外公开。本数据集包含水柱生物量估算结果与原始回声测深仪水柱背散射强度测量数据。本次部署的配套数据集还涵盖环境水质参数与声学标记遥测探测数据。

该滑翔机于2016年7月29日在30米等深线处投放，先向西北方向连续航行一周，随后折返并沿相似航线向东南方向返航，最终于2016年8月12日在投放点附近被回收。本次部署的核心目标是让滑翔机沿湾流天然气管线行进，同步采集水质与声学相关数据集。

本批关联数据集还包含滑翔机M66、M69、M70及M72的采集成果。

滑翔机M66：包含水质变量数据（FL.x707.000:0001，https://doi.org/10.7266/N72N50PF）、声学标记遥测数据（FL.x707.000:0002，https://doi.org/10.7266/n7-ccc2-s109）以及回声测深仪背散射强度数据（FL.x707.000:0003，https://doi.org/10.7266/n7-9yq5-w169）。

滑翔机M69：包含水质变量数据（FL.x707.000:0004，https://doi.org/10.7266/n7-n30g-bw27）、声学标记遥测接收器探测数据（FL.x707.000:0005，https://doi.org/10.7266/n7-406m-ak69）、回声测深仪背散射数据（FL.x707.000:0007，https://doi.org/10.7266/n7-4skm-bj34）以及被动声学录音数据（FL.x707.000:0006，https://doi.org/10.7266/n7-5y6c-sj73）。

滑翔机M70：包含水质变量数据（FL.x707.000:0010，https://doi.org/10.7266/g51f95wz）与声学标记遥测数据（FL.x707.000:0008，https://doi.org/10.7266/p2ymsrp4）。

滑翔机M72：包含水质变量数据（FL.x707.000:0011，https://doi.org/10.7266/ehj8evgw）与声学标记遥测数据（FL.x707.000:0009，https://doi.org/10.7266/9va17amx）。