MARS 452/512  PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL OCEANOGRAPHY LABORATORY return to home
Currents observed in the California Bight - the Sproul CTD data
I. The objectives of this exercise are to:
    1.  Summarize the CTD data  from the Sproul cruises
    2.  Find historical data for the same region from CalCOFI web pages
    3.   Use the temperature and salinity data to identify water masses in the Bight

II.  Sproul CTD data
            1.   Save CTD and nutrients data from 2000 to 2005 from class CD to your own files.  Note
                   that data for 2000 to 2003 is one work sheet; 2004 and 2005 are in sepearate work sheets.
             2.   Note: the 2005 data is also available on Dr. Kaufmann's web site http://home.sandiego.edu/~kaufmann/
                  link to BIOL 351W - Biological Oceanography Lab,  then link to CTD data. 
            3.  Construct four graphs
                    a) depth versus temperature
                    b) depth versus salinity
                    c)  depth versus sigma-t
                    d)  temperature versus salinity (T-S diagram)
            Plot data from Legs 1, 2 and 3 2000 through 2005.  Put like data all on one plot.  That is, plot
            temperature/depth profiles for all legs on one graph, salinity/depth profiles for all legs on
            another graph, etc.   An example of the format for temperature, salinity and density profiles is
             included on the worksheet for CTD 00-001 (Sproul Cruise 2000).
          
III.  CalCOFI CTD Data
            1. Link to the CalCOFI main page at     http://www-mlrg.ucsd.edu/calcofi.html
            2.  Using the blue menu bar, click on Data, then Recent Data then choose the years for 2000 - 2005
                    a.  Under Station Maps Clickable, in the column for 2000, open the station map for cruise 0007
                    b.  Click on station station .70 or any station in the southern line to open the data file
                    c.  Import the data into EXCEL
                    d.  Note that you will, by default, import the entire data set for the 0007 cruise. Station number
                        is shown in the upper right.  Save and manipulate data for the following stations:
                              93.26.7 and 93.30 (stations close to the Sproul stations)
                             93.7 and 93.110   (representative stations further off shore)
            3.  Add the CalCOFI temperature, salinity, density and T-S profiles to the Sproul graphs
             4.  Retain the rest of the data (oxygen, nutrients, etc) for future use.

IV.  Write a paragraph summarizing your results.  Compare the Sproul data to the CalCOFI data.   Is the data collected during the Sproul cruise similar to the CalCOFI data?  What processes are likely to affect the distributions of temperature, salinity, sigma-t?  Why might these components be different on different days and at different locations?  Do these data indicate the presence of:  California Current? Davidson Current? Upwelling filaments?