Table of Contents

• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Program Information
• Funding

Along track temperature, Salinity, backscatter, Chlorophyll Fluoresence, and normalized water leaving radiance (nLw).

On the bow of the R/V Roger Revelle was a Satlantic SeaWiFS Aircraft Simulator (MicroSAS) system, used to estimate water-leaving radiance from the ship, analogous to to the nLw derived by the SeaWiFS and MODIS satellite sensors, but free from atmospheric error (hence, it can provide data below clouds).

The system consisted of a down-looking radiance sensor and a sky-viewing radiance sensor, both mounted on a steerable holder on the bow. A downwelling irradiance sensor was mounted at the top of the ship's meterological mast, on the bow, far from any potentially shading structures. These data were used to estimate normalized water-leaving radiance as a function of wavelength. The radiance detector was set to view the water at 40deg from nadir as recommended by Mueller et al. [2003b]. The water radiance sensor was able to view over an azimuth range of ~180deg across the ship's heading with no viewing of the ship's wake. The direction of the sensor was adjusted to view the water 90-120deg from the sun's azimuth, to minimize sun glint. This was continually adjusted as the time and ship's gyro heading were used to calculate the sun's position using an astronomical solar position subroutine interfaced with a stepping motor which was attached to the radiometer mount (designed and fabricated at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences). Protocols for operation and calibration were performed according to Mueller [Mueller et al., 2003a; Mueller et al., 2003b; Mueller et al., 2003c]. Before 1000h and after 1400h, data quality was poorer as the solar zenith angle was too low. Post-cruise, the 10Hz data were filtered to remove as much residual white cap and glint as possible (we accept the lowest 5% of the data). Reflectance plaque measurements were made several times at local apparent noon on sunny days to verify the radiometer calibrations.

Within an hour of local apparent noon each day, a Satlantic OCP sensor was deployed off the stern of the R/V Revelle after the ship oriented so that the sun was off the stern. The ship would secure the starboard Z-drive, and use port Z-drive and bow thruster to move the ship ahead at about 25cm s-1. The OCP was then trailed aft and brought to the surface ~100m aft of the ship, then allowed to sink to 100m as downwelling spectral irradiance and upwelling spectral radiance were recorded continuously along with temperature and salinity. This procedure ensured there were no ship shadow effects in the radiometry.

Instruments include a WETLabs wetstar fluorometer, a WETLabs ECOTriplet and a SeaBird microTSG.
Radiometry was done using a Satlantic 7 channel microSAS system with Es, Lt and Li sensors.

Chl data is based on inter calibrating surface discrete Chlorophyll measure with the temporally closest fluorescence measurement and applying the regression results to all fluorescence data.

Data have been corrected for instrument biofouling and drift based on weekly purewater calibrations of the system. Radiometric data has been processed using standard Satlantic processing software and has been checked with periodic plaque measurements using a 2% spectralon standard.

Lw is calculated from Lt and Lsky and is "what Lt would be if the
sensor were looking straight down". Since our sensors are mounted at
40o, based on various NASA protocols, we need to do that conversion.

Lwn adds Es to the mix. Es is used to normalize Lw. Nlw is related to Rrs, Remote Sensing Reflectance

Techniques used are as described in:
Balch WM, Drapeau DT, Bowler BC, Booth ES, Windecker LA, Ashe A (2008) Space-time variability of carbon standing stocks and fixation rates in the Gulf of Maine, along the GNATS transect between Portland, ME, USA, and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. J Plankton Res 30:119-139

On the bow of the R/V Roger Revelle was a Satlantic SeaWiFS Aircraft Simulator (MicroSAS) system, used to estimate water-leaving radiance from the ship, analogous to to the nLw derived by the SeaWiFS and MODIS satellite sensors, but free from atmospheric error (hence, it can provide data below clouds).

The system consisted of a down-looking radiance sensor and a sky-viewing radiance sensor, both mounted on a steerable holder on the bow. A downwelling irradiance sensor was mounted at the top of the ship's meterological mast, on the bow, far from any potentially shading structures. These data were used to estimate normalized water-leaving radiance as a function of wavelength. The radiance detector was set to view the water at 40deg from nadir as recommended by Mueller et al. [2003b]. The water radiance sensor was able to view over an azimuth range of ~180deg across the ship's heading with no viewing of the ship's wake. The direction of the sensor was adjusted to view the water 90-120deg from the sun's azimuth, to minimize sun glint. This was continually adjusted as the time and ship's gyro heading were used to calculate the sun's position using an astronomical solar position subroutine interfaced with a stepping motor which was attached to the radiometer mount (designed and fabricated at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences). Protocols for operation and calibration were performed according to Mueller [Mueller et al., 2003a; Mueller et al., 2003b; Mueller et al., 2003c]. Before 1000h and after 1400h, data quality was poorer as the solar zenith angle was too low. Post-cruise, the 10Hz data were filtered to remove as much residual white cap and glint as possible (we accept the lowest 5% of the data). Reflectance plaque measurements were made several times at local apparent noon on sunny days to verify the radiometer calibrations.

Within an hour of local apparent noon each day, a Satlantic OCP sensor was deployed off the stern of the R/V Revelle after the ship oriented so that the sun was off the stern. The ship would secure the starboard Z-drive, and use port Z-drive and bow thruster to move the ship ahead at about 25cm s-1. The OCP was then trailed aft and brought to the surface ~100m aft of the ship, then allowed to sink to 100m as downwelling spectral irradiance and upwelling spectral radiance were recorded continuously along with temperature and salinity. This procedure ensured there were no ship shadow effects in the radiometry.

Instruments include a WETLabs wetstar fluorometer, a WETLabs ECOTriplet and a SeaBird microTSG.
Radiometry was done using a Satlantic 7 channel microSAS system with Es, Lt and Li sensors.

Chl data is based on inter calibrating surface discrete Chlorophyll measure with the temporally closest fluorescence measurement and applying the regression results to all fluorescence data.

Data have been corrected for instrument biofouling and drift based on weekly purewater calibrations of the system. Radiometric data has been processed using standard Satlantic processing software and has been checked with periodic plaque measurements using a 2% spectralon standard.

Lw is calculated from Lt and Lsky and is "what Lt would be if the
sensor were looking straight down". Since our sensors are mounted at
40o, based on various NASA protocols, we need to do that conversion.

Lwn adds Es to the mix. Es is used to normalize Lw. Nlw is related to Rrs, Remote Sensing Reflectance

Techniques used are as described in:
Balch WM, Drapeau DT, Bowler BC, Booth ES, Windecker LA, Ashe A (2008) Space-time variability of carbon standing stocks and fixation rates in the Gulf of Maine, along the GNATS transect between Portland, ME, USA, and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. J Plankton Res 30:119-139

Sample Header Information
/begin_header
/affiliations=Bigelow_Laboratory_for_Ocean_Sciences
/investigators=William_Balch
/contact=bbalch@bigelow.org
/experiment=Patagonian_Shelf
/cruise=copas08
/data_type=flow_thru
/east_longitude=-51.4146[DEG]
/west_longitude=-62.9158[DEG]
/north_latitude=-37.3333[DEG]
/south_latitude=-54.2593[DEG]
/start_date=20081205
/end_date=20081231
/start_time=00:00:04[GMT]
/end_time=23:59:42[GMT]
/fields=date,time,lat,lon,Wt,sal,chl,bbp532,es443,es491,es510,es556,es670,es781,es866,
Lt443,Lt491,Lt510,Lt556,Lt670,Lt781,Lt866,Lsky443,Lsky491,Lsky510,Lsky556,Lsky670,Lsky781,Lsky866,
Lw443,Lw491,Lw510,Lw556,Lw670,Lw781,Lw866,Lwn443,Lwn491,Lwn510,Lwn556,Lwn670,Lwn781,Lwn866,relaz
/units=yyyymmdd,hh:mm:ss,degrees,degrees,degreesC,PSU,mg/m^3,1/m,uW/cm^2/nm,uW/cm^2/nm,uW/cm^2/nm,
uW/cm^2/nm,uW/cm^2/nm,uW/cm^2/nm,uW/cm^2/nm,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,
uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,
uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,
uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,
uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,uW/cm^2/nm/sr,degrees
/delimiter=tab
/documents=readme.txt
/data_file_name=AMTcopas08.xls
/data_status=preliminary
/measurement_depth=5
/missing=-999
/water_depth=NA
/wind_speed=NA
/wave_height=NA
/secchi_depth=NA
/station=NA
/cloud_percent=NA
/calibration_files=amtcopas08-ac90194.dev,amtcopas08-vsf-061g.txt,amtcopas08-WS3S-1048P.dev,DI7125f.cal,DR7063f.cal,DR7064f.cal
/end_header@

On the bow of the R/V Roger Revelle was a Satlantic SeaWiFS Aircraft Simulator (MicroSAS) system, used to estimate water-leaving radiance from the ship, analogous to to the nLw derived by the SeaWiFS and MODIS satellite sensors, but free from atmospheric error (hence, it can provide data below clouds).

The system consisted of a down-looking radiance sensor and a sky-viewing radiance sensor, both mounted on a steerable holder on the bow. A downwelling irradiance sensor was mounted at the top of the ship's meterological mast, on the bow, far from any potentially shading structures. These data were used to estimate normalized water-leaving radiance as a function of wavelength. The radiance detector was set to view the water at 40deg from nadir as recommended by Mueller et al. [2003b]. The water radiance sensor was able to view over an azimuth range of ~180deg across the ship's heading with no viewing of the ship's wake. The direction of the sensor was adjusted to view the water 90-120deg from the sun's azimuth, to minimize sun glint. This was continually adjusted as the time and ship's gyro heading were used to calculate the sun's position using an astronomical solar position subroutine interfaced with a stepping motor which was attached to the radiometer mount (designed and fabricated at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences). Protocols for operation and calibration were performed according to Mueller [Mueller et al., 2003a; Mueller et al., 2003b; Mueller et al., 2003c]. Before 1000h and after 1400h, data quality was poorer as the solar zenith angle was too low. Post-cruise, the 10Hz data were filtered to remove as much residual white cap and glint as possible (we accept the lowest 5% of the data). Reflectance plaque measurements were made several times at local apparent noon on sunny days to verify the radiometer calibrations.

Within an hour of local apparent noon each day, a Satlantic OCP sensor was deployed off the stern of the R/V Revelle after the ship oriented so that the sun was off the stern. The ship would secure the starboard Z-drive, and use port Z-drive and bow thruster to move the ship ahead at about 25cm s-1. The OCP was then trailed aft and brought to the surface ~100m aft of the ship, then allowed to sink to 100m as downwelling spectral irradiance and upwelling spectral radiance were recorded continuously along with temperature and salinity. This procedure ensured there were no ship shadow effects in the radiometry.

Instruments include a WETLabs wetstar fluorometer, a WETLabs ECOTriplet and a SeaBird microTSG.
Radiometry was done using a Satlantic 7 channel microSAS system with Es, Lt and Li sensors.

Chl data is based on inter calibrating surface discrete Chlorophyll measure with the temporally closest fluorescence measurement and applying the regression results to all fluorescence data.

Data have been corrected for instrument biofouling and drift based on weekly purewater calibrations of the system. Radiometric data has been processed using standard Satlantic processing software and has been checked with periodic plaque measurements using a 2% spectralon standard.

Lw is calculated from Lt and Lsky and is "what Lt would be if the
sensor were looking straight down". Since our sensors are mounted at
40o, based on various NASA protocols, we need to do that conversion.

Lwn adds Es to the mix. Es is used to normalize Lw. Nlw is related to Rrs, Remote Sensing Reflectance

Techniques used are as described in:
Balch WM, Drapeau DT, Bowler BC, Booth ES, Windecker LA, Ashe A (2008) Space-time variability of carbon standing stocks and fixation rates in the Gulf of Maine, along the GNATS transect between Portland, ME, USA, and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. J Plankton Res 30:119-139

BCO-DMO Processing Notes
Generated from original text file "copas08-merged-SAS-flow.out" contributed by Bruce Bowler

BCO-DMO Edits
- Parameter names modified to conform to BCO-DMO convention
- time reformatted to HHMMSS
- "-999" no data flag changed to "nd"

A main focus of the COPAS project is to study coccolithophores at the fringes of the Southern Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf (PS) east of Argentina. Some of the most extensive coccolithophore blooms in the world occur on the PS but the remoteness of the region has impeded their study. In this part of the southern ocean, the most basic knowledge is lacking about a) the relationships between coccolithophores and other species of phytoplankton, b) the impact of coccolithophores on the carbon cycle and c) how environmental changes affect bloom taxonomy and function.

This will be the first multi-disciplinary ship-based investigation of these mesoscale blooms, building on an understanding of coccolithophore ecology derived almost exclusively from northern hemisphere bloom studies. This study will document the ecological factors regulating the spatial-temporal distribution of the coccolithophore blooms (the largest recurring coccolithophorid bloom in the sounthern hemisphere) using a combination of underway, satellite and discrete sampling. Satellite measurements will provide quantitative estimates of particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) and particulate organic carbon (POC) in coccolithophore blooms while underway hydrographic and optical sampling will allow real-time evaluation of coccolithophores in both bloom and surrounding non-bloom waters. Vertical casts across the shelf front will provide depth resolved coccolithophore abundance as well as estimates of phytoplankton species richness.

Another goal is to examine the effects of ocean acidification on algal optical properties, coccolithophore concentrations and PIC concentrations (to be determined from deck experiments). Dilution experiments will provide key estimates on phytoplankton growth rates, coccolithophore growth rates and calcification rates, plus the intrinsic loss rates (i.e. phytoplankton grazing, coccolithophore grazing and dissolution associated with zooplankton grazing). PIC has not been examined in dilution experiments heretofore. The project will yield fundamental insights into a) our understanding of coccolithophore ecology (not just Emiliania huxleyi) and b) the utility of the "functional group" concept to describe coccolithophore variability over the PS. Such knowledge is critical to model complex biogeochemical processes that regulate phytoplankton production and the biological pump. It is also worthy of note that the PS coccolithophore populations are at the western edge of a southern hemisphere belt of enhanced coccolithophores thought to extend from the southern tip of South America to waters south of Australia, (~180 degrees of longitude).

The burning of fossil fuels is predicted to increase atmospheric CO2 to 750 p.p.m.v. or more under various future scenarios. As a large fraction of the anthropogenic CO2 diffuses into seawater, the ocean is becoming more acidic; it is predicted that the pH of the surface ocean will drop by up to 0.7 units by year 2300, a 5-fold increase in the proton concentration. A major goal is to examine the effects of ocean acidification on coccolithophores, in a region of low calcite saturation. This study will provide the first detailed analysis of the coccolithophores in this enormous area of high suspended calcite water. The results will be highly relevant to our basic understanding of the marine carbon cycle.

Financial support for the participating UK scientists was also provided by the Luminescence and Marine Plankton project funded by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory under the Joint Grant Scheme programme via Proposal Ref. 1166 to Dr. John Allen.

COPOAS'08 Cruise Report

The Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) program focuses on the ocean's role as a component of the global Earth system, bringing together research in geochemistry, ocean physics, and ecology that inform on and advance our understanding of ocean biogeochemistry. The overall program goals are to promote, plan, and coordinate collaborative, multidisciplinary research opportunities within the U.S. research community and with international partners. Important OCB-related activities currently include: the Ocean Carbon and Climate Change (OCCC) and the North American Carbon Program (NACP); U.S. contributions to IMBER, SOLAS, CARBOOCEAN; and numerous U.S. single-investigator and medium-size research projects funded by U.S. federal agencies including NASA, NOAA, and NSF.

The scientific mission of OCB is to study the evolving role of the ocean in the global carbon cycle, in the face of environmental variability and change through studies of marine biogeochemical cycles and associated ecosystems.

The overarching OCB science themes include improved understanding and prediction of: 1) oceanic uptake and release of atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases and 2) environmental sensitivities of biogeochemical cycles, marine ecosystems, and interactions between the two.

The OCB Research Priorities (updated January 2012) include: ocean acidification; terrestrial/coastal carbon fluxes and exchanges; climate sensitivities of and change in ecosystem structure and associated impacts on biogeochemical cycles; mesopelagic ecological and biogeochemical interactions; benthic-pelagic feedbacks on biogeochemical cycles; ocean carbon uptake and storage; and expanding low-oxygen conditions in the coastal and open oceans.