From bottom contact triggers to transmissometers, oceanographic sensor options are vast and diverse, and choosing the right combination of sensors can significantly augment a CTD’s measurement capabilities. Although getting disparate technologies to talk to one...
Sea-Bird Scientific
Q&A: Negative Oxygen Values
Dissolved oxygen should not be negative. Can you determine the error that created the unusual oxygen profile above?
RS-232 Sensor Integration Guide
Unlike analog auxiliary sensors, instruments that output serial RS-232 data are more challenging to integrate with Sea-Bird Scientific CTDs. Despite RS-232 being a standard communication protocol, most instruments have a unique data output format and command set. As...
Sea-Bird Scientific Photo Contest
From today until April 30th , submit your best photos and view entries to our 5 categories for a chance to win one of several prizes, including Sea-Bird Scientific swag and some grand prizes. Most Biofouled Sea-Bird Scientific instrument: biofouling sets in and–in...
Tech Tip: Cable Search
Consider this hypothetical situation: you find a loose cable with a 6-pin connector and a 4-pin connector - exactly what you need to connect an oxygen sensor to your CTD. However, just because the cable ends fit on the instrument connectors, you still don’t know if...
Q&A: Temperature Mismatch
Although they should match perfectly, the two sensors rarely reported the same temperature value throughout their deployment. Furthermore, the 16plusV2 appeared to stop logging, although the batteries still had life upon recovery. Can you identify the problem?
Q&A: Diagnose This Profile
The data shows conductivity from a 19plus deployed in a shallow estuarine river. The red line shows the CTD downcast and the green line shows the upcast. While the upcast data show the expected shape for a CTD profile (low conductivity at the surface, rising conductivity as the CTD descends), the downcast shows an unusual shape in until about 2.6 meters depth, where conductivity appears to suddenly correct itself.
Discontinued – WQM and WQMX
July 2020 Newsletter Over the past 12 years, the WQM and WQMX have been integral to accelerating the understanding of natural waters. This instrument family was the first collaboration between WET Labs and Sea-Bird Electronics before our companies became fully...
Tech Tip: Julian Days Format
Tech Tip: Julian Days Format “Julian Days” is a numerical timestamp format, calculated by Sea-Bird Scientific CTDs as the number of the days since Jan 1 of that year (e.g., noon on Feb 3 = 34.5). While this format is useful, it is usually more convenient to display...
Q&A: Diagnosing Salinity Spikes
Q&A: Diagnosing Salinity Spikes The figure above shows a time series of salinity from a moored CTD. For most of the deployment, salinity showed frequent downward spikes, dropping from an expected range of 18-26 psu to near zero. Can you determine the cause?...
Featured Posts
February 2024 Newsletter
Welcome to the Sea-Bird Swell – our monthly newsletter that gives you the latest on what’s happening at Sea-Bird Scientific and the broader oceanographic community. Introducing Our New Software: Fathom Earlier this month, we released our new SBS Fathom software! Our...
Moored pH Ocean Monitoring Systems
Our Moored pH Ocean Monitoring Systems Ocean pH plays a critical role in the health of the global ocean due to the short timescales relevant to biological activity. With recent studies highlighting the impacts of acidification on the carbon cycle as well as on coral,...
Introducing the NEW Fathom Software
Sea-Bird Scientific is thrilled to release the newest innovation in software: Fathom. Fathom: Exploring the depths of your data. Sea-Bird Scientific’s Fathom software makes working with your instruments transparent and simple. View instrument status and diagnostics,...
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