Seaglider CTD data for the SPURS-1 N. Atlantic field campaign

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. The Seaglider is an autonomous profiler measuring salinity and temperature. Three Seagliders were deployed on the Knorr cruise in September 2012. These were retrieved during the first Endeavor cruise, and then redeployed. The Seagliders typically made loops or butterfly patterns around the central SPURS mooring, diving to 1000 m. Seaglider data files contain vertically resolved trajectory series of conductivity, salinity, temperature, pressure, depth observations.