OOI Global Argentine Basin Array CTD and Discrete Water Sampling Data from Mooring Overturning Cruises in the Argentine Basin from 2015-2018 (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 Argentine Basin Array, which was located in the South Atlantic from March 2015 to January 2018. The Argentine Basin Array was useful for exploring the global carbon cycle because of its high biological productivity fueled by iron-laden dust from South America. With strong currents persisting on the seafloor and water mass mixing, this region has elevated levels of eddy kinetic energy similar to those in the Gulf Stream.