EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS) North Atlantic sensor calibration and intercalibration documents

Abstract

The following documents collect information regarding the calibration and intercalibration of various sensors that were deployed during the North Atlantic field component of the NASA EXPORTS project (EXPORTS NA), which took place between May 4 and June 1, 2021 (Johnson et al., 2023). The EXPORTS NA campaign was designed to to provide a contrasting end member to the earlier North Pacific field campaign, and focused on carbon export associated with the North Atlantic spring bloom in which gravitational sinking of organic particles, the physical advection and mixing, and active transport by vertically migrating zooplankton are all expected to provide significant flux pathways. During EXPORTS NA data sets were collected from a variety of shipbased, autonomously-piloted, and Lagrangian platforms. Intercalibration activities were tasked to different groups within the EXPORTS project team. Team leads and contact information are listed below. The overarching goal of these activities was to identify a trusted sensor, carry out a careful calibration of this sensor, then base any intercalibraiton needs off of this sensor, occasionally propagating information across platforms.

Full details of the intercalibration approach, assumptions, and summary are provided in the attached documents. All calibration and intercalibration activities were completed before data set were uplaoded to the

NASA SeaBASS data repository. Data related to this cruise can be publicly accessed at: https://seabass.gsfc.nasa.gov/cruise/EXPORTSNA Updates to calibration and intercalibration documents required to reflect revised data sets will also be provided through SeaBASS. Questions concerning referencing these documents or accessing data sets should be directed to Inia Soto Ramos.

NASA EXPORTS Science Lead: David Siegel, davesiegel@ucsb.edu NASA EXPORTS Project Scientist: Ivona Cetini´c, ivona.cetinic@nasa.gov NASA EXPORTS Data Manager: Inia Soto Ramos, inia.m.sotoramos@nasa.gov Calibration and intercalibration leads Temperature and salinity sensors: Andy Thompson, andrewt@caltech.edu Chlorophyll fluorescence sensors: Melissa Omand & Kaley Sten, momand@uri.edu Oxygen sensors: Shawnee Traylor & Roo Nicholson, shawnee@mit.edu Optical backscatter sensors: Xiaodong Zhang, Xiaodong.Zhang@usm.edu Lagrangian float sensors: Eric D’Asaro, dasaro@apl.washington.edu Underway sensors: Leah Johnson, leahjohn@uw.edu Underwater Vision Profiler (UVP)-Particle Size Distribution (PSD): David Siegel, davesiegel@ucsb.edu