OOI Global Southern Ocean Array CTD and Discrete Water Sampling Data from Mooring Overturning Cruises in the Southern Pacific Ocean from 2015-2020 (OOI Cruise Data project)

The hydrographic sampling performed by OOI-CGSN (the Ocean Observatories Initiative - Coastal and Global Scale Nodes) part of each Array turn represents a significant collection of valuable physical, chemical, and biological information. In addition to the CTD, collected hydrographic data include discrete oxygen, salinity, nutrient (nitrate, nitrite, silicate, phosphate, ammonium), chlorophyll, and carbon system measurements. These data serve several important functions. First, they are necessary for the calibration and evaluation of the moored instrumentation at each Array. Furthermore, the annual (Global) or biannual (Coastal) collection of data at the same locations provides a unique time series of a large set of water properties following established community standards and methods, independent of its association with the OOI moorings.

The analyses of collected water samples for the parameters listed above are performed by a number of outside labs on behalf of OOI-CGSN. Consequently, the water sampling data for a given cruise is distributed among a number of different files. The Discrete Sampling Summary integrates the related CTD, metadata, and discrete water sample data into a single file. Additionally, it synthesizes qualitative and quantitative information about the quality of a measurement into data quality flags for each associated parameter which follow WOCE-standards.

The final product is the Discrete Sampling Summary spreadsheet which contains the metadata, CTD data and discrete water sample data into a single spreadsheet with data quality flags.

This dataset includes hydrographic data from the Global Southern Ocean Array. The Global Southern Ocean Array was located in the high-latitude South Pacific, west of the Southern tip of Chile in an area of large scale thermohaline circulation, intermediate water formation , and CO2 sequestration. It permitted examination of linkages between the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic, including strengthening westerly winds and upwelling. This array was in place from February 2015 to January 2020 when it was removed.