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In-Water Technology
Source: NASA Salinity: SPURS
[29-Aug-2019]

How do scientists measure ocean characteristics, and what instruments do they use? Scientific instruments are the tools scientists use to collect measurements. These instruments can be mounted on or deployed from stationary or mobile platforms, such as a vessel or an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). Some of the most common instruments are the Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth (CTD) Rosette, the Underway CTD, the microstructure profiler, and the Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP). This interactive website details the large scale ocean research "field campaign" called SPURS (Salinity Processes in the upper-Ocean Regional Study (SPURS) which investigated the patterns and variations of salinity at the ocean's surface (start: 2011 and ongoing). This multi-page website starts with a video interview with Dr. David Fratantoni detailing how data will be collected during the first SPURS cruise. The following topics are found on subsequent pages:

For more information on the SPURS program overall, and a link to the SPURS Data Tool visit:
NASA Salinity: SPURS »

This "How Do?" interactive website uses a real-life scientific endeavor to provide unique insights into how large-scale, multiple-year scientific experiments at sea are designed, conducted, and evaluated by a interdisciplinary group of ocean and atmospheric scientists.

View: Click on the image to enlarge. Click on the Escape key or anywhere outside the shadowbox to close.

Download: To download a copy, right click on the image and select Save Image As (on a Mac keyboard, click the touchpad while holding down the Control key). To download the highest resolution in our database, first click on the image to enlarge and then save that version.