SeaCATs, the CTD family consisting of the 16plus V2 and 19plus V2, were first developed in late 1985 back when Sea-Bird had barely evolved past a garage operation. When a customer requested a moored CTD – the first that Sea-Bird had ever built, Sea-Bird's team...
Shipboard
CTDs as Data Loggers
The acronym “CTD” might unofficially represent more than just conductivity, temperature, and depth. Since most CTDs include one or more auxiliary sensors, a given CTD package might technically be called a “CTDpHDOFLNTUTr” (CTD + pH + dissolved oxygen + fluorescence +...
Q&A: Regular Spikes in Salinity
This salinity profile was from an arctic deployment in rough seas. At a certain point, we see regular salinity spikes of about ± .01 psu in the upcast data. Can you determine what caused this?
BGC Sensors that Power Argo
Did you know that the sensors that power BGC-Argo are also in heavy use on shipboard and moored platforms? Learn about the analogous BGC sensors for deployment on moorings and vessels, and how your field crew can keep stride with ocean robots.
Analog Sensor Integration Guide
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...
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...
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.
Q&A: Two Symptoms of the Same Problem
May 2020 Newsletter The data above show two major symptoms of the same problem occurring in different locations on a 19plusV2 profiling CTD. On the left, oxygen appears to drop below zero and is highly erratic during the downcast (light blue). However, once it hits a...
Featured Posts
Webinar on Fathom Software in Partnership with the Marine Technology Society
We were excited to partner with the Marine Technology Society (MTS https://www.mtsociety.org/) to bring you a webinar to walk through our new software. We’re excited to release Fathom – the latest in software innovation at Sea-Bird Scientific (SBS). Heather Eberhart,...
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 Systems
Our Moored pH 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, shellfish,...
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