Saildrone Arctic field campaign surface and ADCP measurements for NOPP-MISST project

During the Arctic campaign, NASA-funded Saildrones SD-1036 and SD-1037 undertook transects in the Chukchi Sea, approaching the sea ice edge to measure air-sea heat and momentum fluxes in the ocean near sea ice and to validate satellite sea-surface temperature measurements in the Arctic. Each Saildrone was equipped with a suite of instruments to measure various parameters, including air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, surface skin temperature, wind speed and direction, wave height and period, seawater temperature and salinity, chlorophyll fluorescence, and dissolved oxygen. Additionally, both vehicles utilized 300 kHz acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP) to measure near-surface currents. Seven temperature data loggers positioned vertically along the hull enhanced understanding of thermal variability near the ocean surface.

The Saildrone Arctic 2019 dataset, part of the Multi-sensor Improved Sea-Surface Temperature (MISST) project, encompasses three netCDF format files for each deployed Saildrone. The first file integrates saildrone platform telemetry and surface observational data at 1-minute temporal resolution including key parameters such as air temperature, sea surface skin, and bulk temperatures, salinity, oxygen and chlorophyll-a concentrations, barometric pressure, and wind speed and direction. The second file focuses on ADCP current vector data, providing depth-resolved information to 100m at 2m intervals and binned temporally at 5-minute resolution. The third file includes temperature logger measurements at various depths at 1-minute resolution. This project, funded by NASA through the National Ocean Partnership Program (NOPP), demonstrates a commitment to advancing scientific understanding of the Arctic environment through innovative and autonomous observational technologies.