High-resolution measurements of essential climate variables in the North Sea from the autonomous surface vehicle HALOBATES during RV Heincke cruise HE609

The autonomous surface vehicle HALOBATES measured Essential Climate Variables (ECV), such as sea surface temperature (SST) and salinity (SSS), during the RV Heincke cruise HE609 in the German Bight. HALOBATES captured the SST and SSS at seven depths with a high vertical resolution of about 10 cm, from the near-surface layer (NSL) (between 30 and 100 cm) and the sea surface microlayer (SML) (upper millimeter). Conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) sensors measured temperature and conductivity (for salinity calculation) via a flow-through system on HALOBATES. Additional temperature sensors were mounted on the catamaran to contact the water at six depths in the NSL directly. Salinity was corrected with discrete samples, and biases between the sensors were removed. Two data loggers with several weather stations on HALOBATES captured important weather variables during operation time. HALOBATES was operated between 05 October 2022 and 23 October 2022.