Data Description

The ITP profiler was initially configured to operate on a pattern profiling schedule with different summer and winter schedules. In the summer (between deployment and October 31, and after the following March 1), the instrument conducted a 1.5 day repeating pattern of an up profile from 750 to 7 m, followed by 4 one-way (down, up, down, up) profiles between 7 and 200 m, followed by a down profile from 7 to 750 m, all spaced 6 hours apart. In the winter (after November 1), the instrument conducted a 3 day repeating pattern of an up profile from 750 to 7 m, followed 6 hours later by a down profile from 7 to 200 m, followed 24 hours later by an up profile from 200 to 7 m, followed 6 hours later by a down profile from 7 to 750 m, followed by a 36 hour gap before the pattern repeated. The complicated scheme was designed to conserve battery power to extend the lifetime of the instrument, while maximizing the acquisition of the bio-optical data during the summer months. In the surface package, the GPS receiver was powered hourly to obtain locations hourly, and buoy temperature and battery voltage status were recorded.

The system drifted generally westward and approached the Northwind Ridge at the very end of February 2014. In order to keep the profiler from dragging, the profile schedule was changed to simple one-way profiles to 300 m every 6 hours, then as the system drifted into deeper water (10 days later) to 500 m every 6 hours, then (10 days later) full depth (750 m) every 6 hours, and finally (1 month later) 400 m every 6 hours until the underwater unit ceased communicating with the surface package on March 3, 2014.

The plots to the right are of the final, calibrated, edited data (as opposed to the raw data presented on the active instrument pages).

See the Data Products tab to the left for descriptions of the three levels (I, II, III) of data processing and to access all data.

ITP 68 data can also be found at the links below:

Level II hourly buoy location data in ASCII format: itp68rawlocs.dat

Level III 1-Hz processed profile and SAMI data in MATLAB format: itp68cormat.tar.Z and itp68cormat.zip

Level III 1-db bin-averaged processed profile and SAMI data in MATLAB format: itp68final.mat

Level III 1-db bin-averaged processed profile and SAMI data in ASCII format: itp68final.tar.Z and itp68final.zip

Plot of buoy locations.

ITP 68 Temperature and Salinity contours.

Composite plot of ITP temperature and salinity profiles.

ITP 68 dissolved oxygen contours.

Composite plot of ITP dissolved oxygen profiles.

Plot of SAMI time series.