SPURS-2 Drifter data for the E. Tropical Pacific field campaign

The SPURS (Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study) project is a 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 is comprised of 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 drifter is a passive Lagrangian sensor platform consisting of a surface buoy and tethered subsurface drogue. Drifter buoys contain GPS/ARGOS and satellite data transmitters, with sensors measuring temperature and other properties. For SPURS-2, a range of drifters were deployed during both Revelle SPURS-2 cruises. These included: standard Surface Velocity Program (SVP) drifters with salinity sensors added (SVP/S), Surface Contact Salinity drifters, CODE, SADOS, AOML and CARTHE-SUPRACT drifters. For each series, drifter data have been aggregrated within single netCDF data files with their corresponding drifter-IDs and associated near-surface salinity, temperature georeferenced (GPS and ARGOS) trajectory series data.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated September 15, 2026, 03:23 (UTC)
Created April 1, 2025, 19:14 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id 728c479b-1844-43e1-8eea-a85ccc1b8571
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.5067/SPUR2-DRIFT
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-09-07T22:16:02Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher NASA/JPL/PODAAC;SPURS Project
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 8e602bf9826e4e688d0a5f78738b92b04f16960302c265ee25e6a4eeed1d5f74
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial ["CARTESIAN", [{"WestBoundingCoordinate": -179.999, "SouthBoundingCoordinate": -10.074, "EastBoundingCoordinate": -124.78, "NorthBoundingCoordinate": 32.283}]]
temporal 2016-06-20/2019-03-14
theme {"Earth Science"}