SPURS-2 research vessel Expendable Bathythermograph (XBT) profile data for E. Tropical Pacific 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. Expendable bathythermograph (XBT) casts were undertaken at stations during both of the SPURS-2 R/V Revelle cruises. Launched off the side of the ship, XBT probes provide vertical profile measurements of the water column at fixed locations. There were a total of 25 and 11 XBT deployments made during the first and second R/V Revelle cruises respectively. There is one XBT data file per cruise, each containing the temperature profile data from all instrument deployments undertaken during that cruise.