Water temperature, salinity, and optical properties from an Acrobat towed vehicle from bi-weekly grids conducted at Palmer Station, Antarctica in 2020

This data is from a towed instrument called an ACROBAT. The Acrobat is a winged instrument platform that cycles between the surface and 60 m as it is towed behind a ship traveling at speeds of 5 to 8 knots. It is equipped with a SeaBird 49 FastCAT CTD (temperature, conductivity, and pressure) and a Wetlabs EcoPUCK optical sensor (chlorophyll a, colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and backscatter). The ACROBAT system has been used to map submesoscale features (fronts, eddies and filaments) and provides a real-time data feed via a faired Kevlar cable to the vehicle operator. The ACROBAT enables adaptive sampling of features of interest and detailed mapping of the upper ocean without aliasing due to tides. Bi-Weekly sampling survey grids were conducted out of Palmer Station through the use of the USAP RHIB platform.