Oceanographic vertical microstructure profiler (VMP) data from expedition ARTofMELT, Arctic Ocean, 2023 — raw data

Julia Muchowski, Noemie Planat, Lina Aleke Holthusen, Magnus Asmussen

Turbulent microstructure, conductivity, temperature, depth, turbidity and fluorescence data collected from a free-falling microstructure profiler during the expedition ARTofMELT (Atmospheric Rivers and the Onset of Arctic Melt), with the Swedish icebreaker Oden, in the Fram Strait pack ice during the spring transition between May and June 2023.

This dataset contains the raw native data.

These data include high-resolution vertical profiles of the water column properties from a total of 23 deployments with 1 to 4 casts each. The Rockland Scientific Vertical Microstructure Profiler (VMP) was deployed from holes in the sea ice or over the edge of a floe of sea ice into a lead of open water.

MarineHydrographyArcticArctic OceanFram StraitVertical microstructure profilerVMPARTofMELTARTofMELT 2023 expeditionIcebreaker Oden

Name

Version

Citation

References

Holthusen LA, Planat P, Asmussen M, Muchowski J (2025) Oceanographic vertical microstructure profiler (VMP) data from expedition ARTofMELT, Arctic Ocean, 2023 — subset with CTD data. Dataset version 1. Bolin Centre Database. https://doi.org/10.17043/oden-artofmelt-2023-vmp-ctd-1

Data description

The dataset is provided in 23 folders accompanied by one logbook file. Total size ~1.7 GB.

Collected raw data file names have the prefix data_ followed by a running number. File extension is p.

File format is according to Rockland Scientific`s Data Acquisition software.

In addition to each raw data file, two files are created automatically by the instrument:

• logfile.txt
• setup.cfg

Those files show the internal log of the instrument and it's configuration settings, including data acquisition parameters for sensors mounted on the VMP.

Files are sorted in folders by day. Each folder is named with the date of data collection in the format yyyymmdd followed by information on the station (such as, ship or helicopter station, open lead in the sea ice or hole in a sea ice floe).

In addition, there is one folder (bench-test-files) that contains bench tests performed with the instrument througout the expedition.

Data folders

• 20230512-helicopter-station-01
• 20230514-helicopter-station-02
• 20230517-ship-ice-station-04
• 20230517-ship-ice-station-04-part-four-ROV-hole
• 20230518-19-ship-ice-station-04-part-two-ice-hole
• 20230520-ship-ice-station-04-part-three-ice-hole
• 20230526-helicopter-station-03
• 20230528-helicopter-station-04
• 20230529-ship-ice-station-07-part-one-ROV-hole
• 20230531-ship-ice-station-07-part-two-VMP-hole
• 20230601-ship-ice-station-07-part-three-VMP-hole
• 20230602-ship-ice-station-07-part-four-VMP-hole
• 20230603-ship-ice-station-07-part-five-VMP-hole
• 20230604-ship-ice-station-07-part-six-VMP-hole
• 20230605-helicopter-station-lead-near-ice-floe-station-7
• 20230605-ship-ice-station-07-part-seven-VMP-hole
• 20230606-ship-ice-station-07-part-eight-VMP-hole
• 20230607-ship-ice-station-07-part-nine-VMP-hole
• 20230608-helicopter-station-05-lead
• 20230608-ship-ice-station-07-part-ten-VMP-hole
• 20230609-ship-ice-station-07-part-11
• 20230611-ship-station-07-part-12-ROV-hole
• bench-test-files

Measured Parameters

The Vertical Microstructure Profiler VMP250-IR, Rockland Scientific had the following sensors mounted during deployments:

• Turbulent microstructure from two shear probes (velocity shear).
• Temperature from one FP07 fast thermistor, during the last casts of the expedition a second FP07 sensor was mounted additionally.
• Conductivity and salinity from a JAC CT sensor, JFE Advantech Co.
• Chlorophyll (range 0-400ppb) and turbidity (range 0-1000 FTU) from a CLTU sensor, JFE Advantech Co.
• Pressure from a PA-10L pressure sensor.

In addition, the VMP had an inclinomter to monitor the tilt of the instrument during deployment and a piezo accelerometer (1-axis) to monitor vibrations of the instrument that could cause noise in the shear probe turbulence data.

Software

The raw .p files can be processed with Zissou, a Matlab-based software package provided by Rockland Scientific.

Logbook

Logbook of the VMP operations is provided as a csv file with the file name VMP_logbook.csv. It has the following columns.

• Date
• Time (UTC)
• ship station
• VMP helicopter station
• VMP deployment no.
• total number of casts
• Lat
• Long
• Depth (m)
• Raw file name
• drift (ktns) Drift velocity (ktns)
• Comments
• Processed
• Photo of GPS

Additional Information

On the 18/05/23, a knot in VMP deployment rope got stuck in a slit in the ice. The ice was about 1.6 m thick and the VMP could not be recovered the same day. The instrument measured over night from 20 UTC on the 18th of May to 6 UTC in the morning of the 19th of May when the battery ran out. The VMP hang at varying depth between 260 m and 220 m, likely influenced by the strength of currents. The instrument was recovered the following morning using additional tools. Similarly, on 3, 7,9 and 11 June polar bear alerts forced fortunate time series at varying depths.

Comments

Associated processed data

An associated dataset with a subset of processed conductivity, temperature, depth, fluorescence and turbidity data was created by Holthusen et al. (2025) and is available separately.

The expedition

Data were collected during the ARTofMELT 2023 expedition on board the Swedish icebreaker Oden, which was organized by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat from 8 May through 14 June, 2023.

Project

ARTofMELT 2023 expedition

Publisher

Bolin Centre Database

License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0)

First name

Julia

Last name or organisation

Muchowski

Email address

julia.muchowski@polar.se

Address

Swedish Polar Research Secretariat; c/o Luleå tekniska universitet

Postal code

SE-971 87

City

Luleå

Country

Sweden

GCMD science keyword

Earth science > Oceans

GCMD location

Ocean > Arctic Ocean

Dataset language

English

Begin date

2023-05-08

End date

2023-06-14

DOI

Time