CO₂ and hydrography acquired by autonomous surface vehicles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea: data correction and validation

Abstract

The ATL2MED demonstration experiment involved two autonomous surface vehicles from Saildrone Inc. (SD) which travelled a route from the eastern tropical North Atlantic to the Adriatic Sea between October 2019 and July 2020 (see Table A6). This 9-month experiment in a transition zone between the temperate and tropical belts represents a major challenge for the SD's operations. The sensors on board were exposed to varying degrees of degradation and biofouling depending on the geographical area and season, which led to a deterioration in the measurements. As a result, some maintenance measures were required during the mission. We address the difficulty of correcting the data during a period of COVID-19 restrictions, which significantly reduced the number of discrete samples planned for the SD salinity and dissolved oxygen validation. This article details alternative correction methods for salinity and dissolved oxygen. Due to the lack of in situ data, model products have been used to correct the salinity data acquired by the SD instruments, and then the resulting corrected salinity was validated with data from fixed ocean stations, gliders, and Argo floats. In addition, dissolved oxygen data acquired from the SD instruments after correction using air oxygen measurements were tested and found to be coherent with the variation in oxygen concentrations expected from changes in temperature and phytoplankton abundance (from chlorophyll a). The correction methods are relevant and useful in situations where validation capabilities are lacking, which was the case during the ATL2MED demonstration experiment. For future experiments, a more frequent sample collection would improve the data qualification and validation.