Please note that operations of the CTD (Conductivity-Temperature-Depth) watersampler requires experienced scientific staff on board. The system is not operated by the ship's crew. Announce operations with the CTD Watersampler to AWI-Logistics prior to the cruise and clarify the data transfer after the cruise.

Summary

The CTD probe measures conductivity and temperature along a vertical transect through the water body. The measured parameter are used to calculate the salinity of the water. Additionally, up to 24 water samples can be taken in different water depths during the CTD measurements. A fluorometer, an oxygen sensor and a transmissiometer are attached to the CTD as well. The system is operational up to 2000m water depth.



Manufacturer Seabird
Model SBE911plus mit SBE32
Serial No. n/a
Type CTD



Contacts

Name Institution Role
Rohardt, Gerd Alfred-Wegener-Institute Data Scientist
Wisotzky, Andreas Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research Data Scientist

Components

The CTD system consists of the underwater unit SBE 9plus, the deck unit SBE 11plus V2 and the carousel water sampler SBE32 which is equipped with free flow water samplers manufactured by Hydro-Bios. The CTD is outfitted with a double set of temperature (SBE 3plus) and conductivity (SBE 4C) sensors that are calibrated regularly. Additionally, an altimeter, a transmissometer, an oxygen sensor and a fluorometer may be attached to the CTD unit and operated to water depths of 6000m.

On the CTD data aquisition PC in the Messraum following software is installed: aquisition software Seasave (Version V7_19), SBE Data processing software, ManageCTD software packet for cleansing and conversion of the data and Ocean Data View (ODV) for visualization.


Name Model Type
PSA-916 Sonar Altimeter PSA-916 altimeter
SBE32 water sampler SBE32 remote water sampler
SBE3plus temperature sensor SBE3plus temperature sensor
SBE4 conductivity sensor SBE4 conductivity meter
SBE43 oxygene sensor SBE43 oxygen sensor
C-Star transmissometer C-Star transmissometer
ECO FL fluorometer ECO FL fluorescence Sensor
SBE 5P pump SBE 5P pump

Position


Origin Description:The CTD unit is usually stored on the main deck. Electronics and the computer for operation are installed in the Mess- und Registrierraum.

Data logging, storage and archiving

Logged parameters

Parameter Sensor Output Type Unit
conductivity conductivity S/m
water temperature water temperature °C
transmission visibility %
oxygen content oxygen ml/l
pressure pressure dbar
fluorescence fluorescence V
distance to sea floor distance m

Central geographical ship's position and time standard

The PC is time synchronised  via the Windows-Domain-Affiliation. Geographic position and UTC time is made available to the system via NMEA telegram and read by Seasave software.

Rawdata storage on board

Raw data are stored with the ManageCTD software on the aquisiton PC in following data structure:

root directory\\xdc\scientists\data\CTD\
directory nameCruiseNo e.g. HE507 with subdirectories
data volume (MB per day) ca.50
number of files per day ca.10


Data archiving on land

After consultation with the data scientist and AWI Logistics the CTD data including meta data may be transferred to PANGAEA  (https://www.pangaea.de/).

Documentation