SPURS-2 Rawinsonde meteorological data for the E. Tropical Pacific field campaign R/V Revelle cruises

The SPURS (Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study) project is NASA-funded 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, SMAP and SMOS satellites, provide a detailed characterization of salinity structure over a continuum of spatio-temporal scales. The SPURS-2 campaign involved two month-long cruises by the R/V Revelle in August 2016 and October 2017 combined with complementary sampling on a more continuous basis over this period by the schooner Lady Amber. Focused around a central mooring located near 10N,125W, the objective of SPURS-2 was to study the dynamics of the rainfall-dominated surface ocean at the western edge of the eastern Pacific fresh pool subject to high seasonal variability and strong zonal flows associated with the North Equatorial Current and Countercurrent. A Rawinsonde is a helium balloon carrying meteorological instruments and a radar target, enabling the velocity of atmospheric parameters to be measured. During the first Revelle cruise, rawinsondes were launched every 6-hours, providing a total of 85 profiles of temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction through the marine atmospheric boundary layer within the SPURS-2 domain. Similarly, during the second Revelle cruise, rawinsondes were deployed four-times daily within the study area over the 3-week period. SPURS2 rawinsonde data are available as netCDF, CF-compliant data files.