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    • Drifter data for the SPURS-1 N. Atlantic field campaign

    Metadata Updated: September 19, 2025

    The SPURS (Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study) project is an oceanographic process study and associated field program that aim to elucidate key mechanisms responsible for near-surface salinity variations in the oceans. The project involves two field campaigns and a series of cruises in regions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans exhibiting salinity extremes. SPURS employs a suite of state-of-the-art in-situ sampling technologies that, combined with remotely sensed salinity fields from the Aquarius/SAC-D and SMOS satellites, provide a detailed characterization of salinity structure over a continuum of spatio-temporal scales. The SPURS-1 campaign involved a series of 5 cruises during 2012 - 2013 seeking to characterize the salinity structure and balance in a high salinity, high evaporation, and low rainfall region of the subtropical North Atlantic. It aims to resolve processes responsible for maintaining the subtropical surface salinity maximum in this region and within a 900 x 800-mile square study area centered at 25N, 38W. Approximately 83 drifters were deployed during the SPURS-1 campaign. A drifter is a passive Lagrangian sensor platform consisting of a surface buoy and tethered subsurface drogue. Drifter buoys contain GPS/ARGOS and satellite data transmitters, with sensors measuring temperature and other properties. For SPURS-1, these were standard Surface Velocity Program (SVP) drifters with salinity sensors added (SVP/S). Data for both US and European drifter deployments during SPURS-1 are available here. For each series, drifter data have been aggregrated within single netCDF data filea with their corresponding drifter-IDs and associaciated near-surface salinity, temperaure georeferenced (GPS and ARGOS) trajectory series data.

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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    Dates

    Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NASA Data.json

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025
    Publisher SPURS Project;NASA/JPL/PODAAC
    Maintainer
    Identifier 10.5067/SPUR1-DRIFT
    Data Last Modified 2025-09-11
    Category Earth Science
    Public Access Level public
    Bureau Code 026:00
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Harvest Object Id 8fe78625-ae71-4b89-9ec7-fc65cd4c30d8
    Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
    Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
    Homepage URL https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/CitingPODAAC
    Old Spatial "CARTESIAN",{"WestBoundingCoordinate":-66.0,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":16,"EastBoundingCoordinate":-28.0,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":35}
    Program Code 026:000
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash eabed3ce160efea775871b623356143674e923c555a160a23699f7310e86fe9a
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial
    Temporal 2011-10-19/2011-10-19

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