Measurements of oceanic and atmospheric methane, CO2 and ammonium made during the Belgica BG9506 research cruise in the North East Atlantic during March, 1995

This metadata entry refers to measurements of oceanic and atmospheric methane made by Robin Keir (OMEX-I project member); oceanic carbon dioxide made by Michel Frankignoulle; and oceanic ammonium made by Marc Elskens during the Belgica BG9506 research cruise in the North-East Atlantic as part of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) and the Ocean Margin in EXchange project (OMEX). The cruise began on 3rd March 1995 and ended on 17th March 1995 with a spatial coverage of +51N to +44N latitude and +09W and +03E longitude. Samples of sea water were collected using a CTD/Rosette. The sea water was then analysed using gas chromatography. The resulting data is held at the British Oceanography Data Centre.

The data consists of:
-532 measurements of the methane (CH4) per unit volume of the water column (dissolved plus reactive particulate phase) by gas chromatography;
-150 measurements of the concentration (v/v) of methane (CH4) per unit volume of the atmosphere by gas chromatography;
-86 measurements of the partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) in the water column by computation from pH and alkalinity;
-86 measurements of the concentration of carbon (total inorganic) (TCO2) per unit volume of the water column (dissolved plus reactive particulate phase) computed by pH and alkalinity); and
-47 measurements of the concentration of ammonium (NH4) per unit volume of the water column (dissolved plus reactive particulate phase) by manual colorimetric analysis.

See below for further details.