SPURS-2 Neutrally buoyant float 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. Neutrally buoyant floats (also known as Mixed Layer Floats - MLF) drift and move through the water column providing continuous CTD temperature and salinity profiles and GPS surface position location data. One float was deployed in SPURS-2 during the first Revelle cruise in August 2016 and recovered in December 2016 after 3.5 months about 1800 km east of the central mooring. The MLF data are provided in netCDF file format with standards compliant metadata.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated April 21, 2026, 05:37 (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 cf6acbdf-cd5c-4a02-a82d-aa4d94a54cd0
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.5067/SPUR2-NBFLT
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-04-13T22:16:02Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher SPURS Project;NASA/JPL/PODAAC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 9908dd856ae0561df01d059e5571b035d6edd2fadc18639624aff235b5ce5a67
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial ["CARTESIAN",[{"WestBoundingCoordinate":-125.015,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":7.855,"EastBoundingCoordinate":-108.951,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":11.891}]]
temporal 2016-08-26/2016-12-29
theme {"Earth Science"}