CTD System.

Abstract

A Sea-Bird Electronics 911plus V2 CTD collects vertical profile data at every CalCOFI station. In addition to being a dual TCO (temperature, conductivity, and oxygen) system, the CTD also interfaces with a transmissometer, fluorometer, PAR/SPAR meters, altimeter, nitrate, and pH sensor. Connected to a shipboard data-acquisition computer through an electronically-conductive winch wire, sensor data are collected and displayed real-time using Seasave V7 on a Windows PC. The CTD is normally lowered to terminal depth of 515 m, bottom-depth permitting, but is routinely deployed within meters from the seafloor at nearshore SCCOOS and basin stations. To ensure high resolution sampling in areas with significant hydrological and biological gradients a speed of ~30 m/min is used for the first 100 m then ~60 m/min to depth without stopping. During retrieval, the CTD is paused for at least 20 seconds at target bottle depths to adequately flush each 10 liter sample bottle prior to closure. Seawater samples are analyzed onboard (e.g., salinity, oxygen, nutrients, chl) and are used to correct measured CTD values.