PICO Mooring 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. Two PICO moorings (PICO-1000, PICO-3000) were deployed on the Knorr cruise in September 2012 in the northern and eastern SPURS-1 domain quadrants at N24.74, W37.95 and N24.51, W37.81 respectively. The moorings contained a surface meteorological package and a "prawler", a CTD that crawls up and down the mooring line from the near-surface down to about 500m, yielding time series of salinity and temperature profile data at fixed locations. The moorings were recovered on the Endeavor-2 cruise. PICO mooring netCDF files contain georeferenced CTD profile data including salinity, temperature, potential temperature, pressure, depth, meteorological variables, GPS-Lat/Lon, and profile ID.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated June 23, 2026, 02:09 (UTC)
Created April 1, 2025, 18:23 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id c2aa9301-e4e7-4da0-b32e-639fbd333306
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.5067/SPUR1-MOOR2
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-06-15T22:16:02Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher NASA/JPL/PODAAC;SPURS Project
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 2172c360ec3fe0062481aa97682ee931d999f9711f32a623d0610089a87ef2e3
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial ["CARTESIAN", [{"WestBoundingCoordinate": -38.0, "SouthBoundingCoordinate": 24, "EastBoundingCoordinate": -27.0, "NorthBoundingCoordinate": 25}]]
temporal 2012-09-14/2013-09-30
theme {"Earth Science"}