Abstract
Abstract. We report on data from an oceanographic cruise, covering western, central and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, on the French research vessel Tethys 2 in May 2015. This cruise was fully dedicated to the maintenance and the metrological verification of a biogeochemical observing system based on a fleet of BGC-Argo floats. During the cruise, a comprehensive data set of parameters sensed by the autonomous network was collected. The measurements include ocean currents, seawater salinity and temperature, and concentrations of inorganic nutrients, dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll pigments. The analytical protocols and data processing methods are detailed, together with a first assessment of the calibration state for all the sensors deployed during the cruise. Data collected at stations are available at https://doi.org/10.17882/51678 and data collected along the ship track are available at https://doi.org/10.17882/51691.
Highlights
1.1 Context of the cruiseThe biogeochemical functioning of the Mediterranean Sea is typical of temperate oceanic regions
We report on data from an oceanographic cruise, covering western, central and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, on the French research vessel Tethys 2 in May 2015
This pattern is confirmed by the phenology of the underlying phytoplankton dynamics that varies from ultra-oligotrophic regimes in the eastern basin to bloom regimes in the northwestern basin (D’Ortenzio et al, 2009)
Summary
The biogeochemical functioning of the Mediterranean Sea is typical of temperate oceanic regions. The emergence of BGC-Argo floats, which are autonomous profiling platforms equipped with biogeochemical sensors and programmed at weekly cycles up to 1000 m depth (Leymarie et al, 2013), allows us to collect oceanographic profiles concomitantly for physical and biogeochemical properties (temperature, salinity, concentration of dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, nitrate). These open new perspectives for the description and comprehension of the biogeochemical functioning of the Mediterranean Sea. For example, the occurrence of phytoplankton blooms can be directly related to the availability of nutrients (D’Ortenzio et al, 2014). In this context, dedicated and precise efforts were necessary to ensure data quality of the Mediterranean observing system composed of BGC-Argo floats
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