Lab 2: THE DISPLAY OF

OCEANOGRAPHIC DATA
Introduction
This lab describes the ways in which some of the OOI data are displayed and has students work with
some products of the data, graphs, and maps.

OOI data are presented as collected, the data have not been massaged to remove outliers or gaps or to
eliminate data that from a distract trend. In other words, these are real, and sometimes messy data.

How do oceanographers display data to help them answer scientific questions?

Much of the data scientists collect way consists of numbers and measurements of something. These
data need to be organized in a to illustrate patterns in the data. For this reason, graphs are frequently
used to display data. Graphs are a pictorial way to visualize patterns that would be hard to identify in
columns of numbers. Graphs often have x and y axes, and the variable (measured quantity) that one
chooses to plot on these axes is chosen to answer a question. For example, oceanographers are often
interested in how some measured property changes over time. The natural choice then is to plot time
on the x-axis (increasing to the right) and the variable of interest on the y-axis. Sometimes
oceanographers are interested in how a variable changes as one moves away from the beach, and in
that case, it would make sense to plot distance from shore on the x-axis. In this exercise we examine
some of the ways in which data are collected and some of the common graphs used by oceanographers.

Interpreting data visualizations is a very important data skill! Often data are presented on X-Y graphs
because there is some expected relationship between two variables. Common relationships in
oceanography are the variation of some measured property over time, over distance from shore or over
depth in the ocean. When you become experienced at examining these types of graphs you will see that
there is often a “typical” to a particular shape type of graph. Scientists get very excited when they see
something different from the typical shape! That can mean they have made a discovery.

Learning outcomes
After completing this lab students will be able to:

LO1. Identify key components of a scientific graph (axes scales, legends, multiple y-axes).

LO2. Describe data patterns such as minimum and maximum values, trends over time or distance.

LO3. Recognize graph types commonly used in oceanography (time series, station profile, vertical
section contour plot, bubble, or vector map).

LO4. Discover that real-world data can be quite variable.

LO5. Identify gaps in data and infer likely reasons for the gaps.

LO6. Describe the oceanographic convention of plotting depth increasing down for station profiles and
vertical sections.

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Key Terms
X-axis, Y- axis, units, graphs, variability, temporal, positive trend, negative trend, no trend, inverse
correlation, direct correlation, no correlation, causation.

Lab 2, Part 1
Background on Data visualizations
Deriving the meaning from large data sets can be difficult especially if data is in a table format. You may
not see the relationship between variables in a table, which is why scientific data is plotted in different
data visualizations that help to organize and display the data. Data visualizations include maps, graphs,
charts, or diagrams that put data into a visual context that can make it easier to detect patterns, trends,
and outliers in groups of data. In this exercise you are introduced to and asked to explore graphs and
answer questions to interpret oceanographic data by looking at a variety of different oceanographic
data visualizations that use large data sets. These data visualizations allow for you to interpret the
meaning of the data.

Tools of Science: Data as a Tool

Please watch the following video

Figure 1. Video about data as a tool.

Trends in data often are a change in some variable over space or time. Examples include the increase in
water depth with increasing distance from the beach, the increasing in temperature with decreasing
distance from the oven in your kitchen, or the increase in height as a child gets older. Patterns in data
may be more complex than a simple increase or decrease in a variable (which is a trend). Air

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temperature measured over the course of a year shows a pattern of high temperatures in the summer
and low temperature in the winter. River discharge typically also has an annual pattern of high discharge
in the spring due to snow melting and lower discharge in the rest of the year or a similar pattern
associated with wet (rainy) and dry seasons. Scientists may be looking at a temporal relationship such
as spawning activity of a coral and the relationship to moon cycle or time of year.

X-axis, Y-axis variables

Trends or patterns in data presented on a graph should be easy to identify. The process includes first
identifying the variables. Graphs typically have labels on the X and Y axes or scales that indicate both the
variable that is plotted and the units of the variable. If more than one variable is plotted there is often a
legend that helps you figure out what each of the plotted lines means. Sometimes a graph may have two
Y-axes, with each axis representing a different variable and scale. In addition, graphs often have a title or
caption that provides even more information. Maps and charts help visualize geographical location and
spatial dynamics of the data. With maps you need to orient yourself to the location, look to see if there
is land or bathymetric features and identify the variable that is plotted by seeking out the legend.

Figure 2. Scatter plot about the relationship of river discharge and salinity between 06/03 and 06/13

Identifying trends or patterns

Once you have identified key information from the graphic, you then need to look for patterns in the
data, these may be similarities, differences, trends, or other relationships. When identifying patterns in
the data, you want to look for positive, negative and no correlation, as well as creating best fit lines
(trend lines) for given data. The best fit line often helps you identify patterns when you have messy, or
variable data. A trend line is the line formed between a high and a low. If that line is going up, the trend

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is positive or increasing and if the trend line is sloping downward, the trend is negative or decreasing.
You may have data, or the trend(s) goes both up and down but on a different temporal (time) scale, such
as seasons, daily, or based on tides. Look at these simple examples to help you identify these trends and
relationships.

Figure 3. Simple graph diagrams with data points representing positive trend (increasing), negative trend (decreasing) and no
trend (flat). Not all graphs have lines to represent trends so you have to interpret the data. These are general trends you would
look for.

Figure 4. simple scatter plot graphs with trendline

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Figure 5. Simple graphs with just the trendline

Variability
Real data can sometimes be very messy. It often shows a trend that looks messy because of natural
variability. What causes variability? It can be any number of things, for example, in the ocean water
movement can have multiple sources. So there may be a wind driven current in one direction that when
plotted shows variability, oscillations back and forth every 12 hours. These oscillations are due to the
tide. If you were to plot the distance traveled by a floating object in the water, you would see a gradual
movement in the direction of the wind driven current with some sloshing back and forth. Analyzing such
data requires identifying the trend and the variability, in this case the tidal oscillations.

The animation below shows the tidal current at a location in Maine. Positive values indicate the tide is
flooding or flowing into the harbor. Negative values indicate the tide is ebbing or flowing out of the
harbor. So, the speed values show both how fast the water moves, in knots (nautical miles per hour),
and the direction of the current. The animation also shows what the current record would look like at
Portland Harbor if a 0.5 knot wind driven current was acting, in addition to the tidal current. The graphs
look the same but examine the y-axes. The tidal current graph shows that the current reverses direction
(alternates between positive and negative numbers) while the wind and tidal current graph shows that
although the strength of the current alternates the direction is always positive, into the harbor. Clearly
the wind is blowing water into the harbor, but the tidal forces act to decrease the current when the tide
ebbs or flows away from the shore.

Please watch the following movie

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Figure 6. Video on time series explained on tides

Interpreting data
Once you have identified a pattern or trend, think about what the trend might mean by relating it to the
concepts you learned in your course about oceanography. You may be comparing multiple different
variables to each other, or you may need to compare different graphs. When comparing different
graphs, be sure to pay attention to the scales, as they may be different. First, look to see if there is a
correlation between the 2 or more variables on the graph, or spatial relationship on a map. The
correlation could be direct where both variables increase and decrease together, or inverse where one
variable increase and the other decreases. Sometimes there may be a correlation based on a temporal
scale, seasons for instance. Remember, correlation does not always mean causation. A correlation
indicates that there is an association between the variables but doesn’t tell us why. Sometimes there is a
reason and sometimes it is just a coincidence. (You can google “spurious correlations” and find all kinds
of fun examples).

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 Figure 7. Simple graph diagram examples of Inverse, Direct and Seasonal Inverse Correlations of two generic variables.
Remember that real data is sometimes messy, so graphs are not always this simple to interpret, however, this provides you with
general pattern

Lab 2, Part 1: questions

Figure 8. Density temperature relationship

1. What do you see Figure 8: highlight the correct answer?

 Positive trend
 Negative trend
 Seasonal trend
 Not trend

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Figure 9. Relationship between the air temperature and the sea surface temperature

2. What do you see Figure 9: highlight the correct answer?

 Positive trend
 Negative trend
 Seasonal trend
 Not trend

Figure 10. Annual change of the dissolved oxygen concentration

3. What do you see Figure 10: highlight the correct answer?

 Positive trend
 Negative trend
 Seasonal trend
 Not trend

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Figure 11. Relationship between the river discharge and the salinity between some days in June at the Penobscot River and Bay

4. What do you see Figure 11: highlight the correct answer?

 Inverse relationship
 No apparent relationship
 Direct relationship

5. Which parameter shows a higher variability in Figure 11?

 River discharge
 Salinity
 Both the river discharge and the salinity exhibit the same variability
 Neither the river discharge nor the salinity exhibits any variability

6. Why do oceanographers plot some data with the y-axis showing a depth of zero at the top and
increasing depth as you go down the y-axis?
- Originally, the graph will have the y-axis at the bottom of zero but in some cases the depth
of the ocean is going down rather than a height.

7. If you wanted to create a graph that showed how a dolphin has grown since it was born, what
would you plot on the x-axis and what would you plot on the y-axis?
- I will plot the time/period in the x-axis and the size growth of dolphin on the y-axis.

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LAB 2.2 – BATHYMETRIC CHARTS
The ocean’s floor contains a vast array of shapes and textures formed over millions of years of geologic
processes. These different seafloor formations provide habitat for marine species and sometimes
contain valuable resources, such as oil and natural gas. Scientists and industry professionals use
detailed bathymetric maps or charts to explore seafloor habitat and resources.

In this activity you will practice interpreting bathymetric maps to investigate seafloor formations in the
Gulf of Mexico.

Figure 12. Map of Gulf of Mexico. Magenta rectangle shows areas of salt domes, including the East Flower Garden Bank (EFGB).
Black rectangle shows the region of the West Florida continental shelf (WFS) that you will examine later in this activity.

The Texas-Louisiana continental shelf has many active oil wells due to the interesting geology of this
region. The oil in the rocks tends to accumulate around circular shaped features called salt domes.
These features form when salt that is buried deeply in the shelf sedimentary rocks rises toward the
surface, as a chimney shaped feature. In rising the salt deforms the surrounding rocks, and sometimes
the sea floor, pushing it up into domes.

One such salt dome is the East Flower Garden Bank, within the Flower Garden Banks National Marine
Sanctuary (labeled EFGB in Figure 12). Figure 13 represents the shape of the Bank with contour lines.
Each line on the contour map outlines an area of the seafloor that is a certain depth below the surface
of the water. Locate the contour line labeled “60” and trace your mouse or eye around it. Everything on
that path has a depth of 60 meters.

A
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 B

Figure 13. Contour map of East Flower Garden Bank. Labels indicate depth below the sea surface in meters.

Lab 2, Part 2: questions

8. Based on the bathymetric map above, fill in the blanks

The deepest labeled contour line in Figure 13 is __120___ meters below the surface of the ocean.

The shallowest contour line is _40__ meters deep.

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9. How deep is the seafloor at 27° 57’ N, 93° 38’ W? (Related to Figure 13). For help purposes I
included an orange and a blue line. If you highlight these lines and moves around in the word
document than you should easily find the correct answer
 80 meters
 Less than 40 meters
 100 meters
 Greater than 120 meters

10. Please create a bathymetric profile on the graph paper provided. How to create a bathymetric
profile is explained in the video below. Please click on the image below and a video should
start. You can draw the profile electronically on the graph paper provided or you draw the
profile by hand on a piece of paper and upload a photo of your drawing to BBL.

11. Which side of the East Flower Garden Bank, northern (A-B) or southern (C-D) is the steepest?
(Related to the video and the bathymetric profile you drew in number 10).
- The steepest side is the southern area.

12. Estimate the depth of the seafloor at 27° 56’ N, 93° 36’ W. Remember that the depth changes
continuously between contours. (Related to figure 13). For help purposes I included an orange
and a blue line. If you highlight these lines and moves around in the word document than you
should easily find the correct answer
- Approximately 50 meters.

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 13. Hard corals (the ones that build reefs) are found on top of the bank, down to a depth of
approximately 50 meters. Hence, these corals cannot live below 50 m. If an ROV collected
video footage of the location with the latitude and longitude of 27° 56’ N, 93° 37’ W, would
you expect to see living coral reef habitat? Why or why not? (Related to figure 13) Again, for
help purposes I included an orange and a blue line. If you highlight these lines and moves
around in the word document than you should easily find the correct answer
- Approximately 70 meters. We could not expect to see the living coral reef habitat because
these corals cannot live below 50 m.

LAB 2.3 – READING A TIME SERIES GRAPH

Time series plots are often used to show daily, seasonal and interannual changes in some property. You
have probably experienced daily and seasonal changes in temperature. There are daily and seasonal
changes in temperature in the ocean too, so fish, whales and other marine organisms feel them. The
water in the ocean has a moderating effect on temperature change though, so changes are not as
extreme as those experienced-on land. For example, the lowest recorded temperature on land is -88°C
(-126°F) and the highest is 58°C (136°F). Compare that to the temperature range in the ocean, -1°C
(30.2°F) to 30°C (86°F). Interestingly, the large temperature range on land seems to have resulted in
land animals being better adapted to temperature changes. As the oceans warm even a little bit
scientist is finding that it affects both the number of organisms in an area and the number of species.

In this activity you will investigate time series from the Coastal Pioneer Array, near the edge of the U.S.
east coast continental shelf.

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 Figure 14. Air temperature in 2018 at the Coastal Pioneer array.

Figure 14. shows the air temperature as measured at the OOI Coastal Pioneer Offshore mooring over
one full year. Let’s explore this graph and see if we can make sense of it.

Lab 2, Part 3: Answer the following questions to become familiar with

this time series plot (Figure 14.).
14. What was the start and end month and year for data collection?
- The start month is January and the end month is December in 2018.

15. What variable is plotted on the y-axis of this graph and what are the units?
- The y-axis shows the Air-Temperature and the unit is Celsius.

16. How does this variable vary throughout the year? Does the variation make sense based on
your knowledge of seasonal temperature variation?
- The variable constantly fluctuated. It makes sense with my knowledge of seasonal
temperature variation, and it is hard to predict the exact trend in a whole period.

17. A trend in a time series is when there is a gradual change (i.e., an increase or decrease) over
time, depth, or distance. What trends do you see in this data?
- There is an increase trend from Jan to Aug, but it witnesses the decrease trend at the end of
the year.
18.

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The graph (Figure 15) below shows a small part of the data set you just examined.

Figure 15. Air temperature in October 2018

Answer the following question related to Figure 15.

19. What is the start and end date of the data collection in Figure 15?
- The start date is Oct 20, and the end date is Oct 28

20. Notice that there is a gap in the data. What does that gap mean in figure 15?
- The detective device might be broken, disconnected or they move to another area to
measure.

21. Are there any trends in the data shown in Figure 15? What do you think causes them?
- There is a significant decrease trend between Oct 20 and Oct 22, the data recovers after that
but there is a gap, and it decreases until Oct 26. Then it hits a peak before slightly dropping
on Oct 28. I think the coastal area that has the sea to regulate the climate and temperature
to cause this trend.

22. What are the maximum and minimum values in the data shown in figure 15? Estimate to the
best of your ability from the graph.
- The maximum value in the data shown is 19 Celsius. The minimum value is 7 Celsius.

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Sometimes it is easier to look at long term data by taking averages, for example it is often useful to
average temperature data over a 24-hour period to remove the temperature change that occurs
between day and night. For other studies an average of all the data collected during a month may be
appropriate. The graph (Figure 16) below shows the same data set examined in the previous graphs, but
the data points are monthly averages of temperature.

Figure 16. Monthly averaged air temperature in 2018.

23. What are the maximum and minimum temperature values, and what do you think causes
them? Related to figure 16.
- The maximum temperature value is 25 Celsius and the minimum is 5 Celsius. The reason is
the high temperature occurs and significantly increases in the summer months while it starts
to decrease from Aug to Mar (Fall, Winter, and Spring).

24. The graph above (Figure 16) looks much “neater” than the previous graphs. This is because
much of the detail has been lost in the averaging process. Is this a fair trade-off if you want to
look at seasonal changes in temperature? What do you think?
- I think this is a fair trade-off because when looking at seasonal changes in temperature, the
graph only needs to be shown averagely in month to month in a season such as Spring (Jan –
Apr) or Summer (Apr – Aug).

25. Is one or more trend(s) evident in the monthly mean temperature data shown in figure 16?
Describe the trend(s).
- It is clear trends evident that it slightly increases from Jan to Feb and drops in Mar as a
mountain symbol. Then it significantly increases from Mar and hits a peak in nearly Sep and
starts to fall until Dec.

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Sometimes we want to compare two data sets to see if they are related. One way to do that is to plot
them on the same set of axes. Below is the same graph of air temperature but now the sea surface
temperature has been added to it.

Figure 17. Temperature measured in the air (yellow) and surface ocean water (red) in 2018.

26. Based on Figure 17., are there any trends in the water temperature data? What are they?
- In general, the water temperature data fluctuates and increases until Sep and then gradually
drops until Dec.

27. What is the maximum and minimum in the water temperature and when do they occur
(Figure 17.)?
- The maximum is approximately 29 Celsius in Jul while the minimum is 10 from Dec – Jan

28. How does the seasonal range in water temperature compare to the seasonal range in air
temperature? Why do you think that they aren’t the same? Related to figure 17.
- They both seem to experience the same trend in a year, but the air temperature starts at a
lower point than the water temperature (approximately -5 Celsius compared to 11 Celsius).
The air temperature is less than water because water is much higher heat capacity than air.

29. Is water temperature correlated with air temperature? In other words, as one temperature
series increases or decreases the other one also changes. Related to figure 17.

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 - Yes, they are correlated together. A cooler water surface results in cooler air temperatures
and inversely.

When scientists want to compare two different types of measurements, they can plot them on the same
graph but have to use different y-axes. Examine the graph below (Figure 2.1.5), which shows the surface
water temperature data and surface salinity data. Note that the temperature data are plotted relative to
the y-axis on the LEFT, while the salinity data are plotted relative to the y-axis on the RIGHT. The units
given for salinity are PSU. This stands for practical salinity units.

Figure 18. Temperature (red) and salinity (blue) of the surface ocean water in 2018.

30. What are the maximum and minimum values for sea surface salinity in Figure 18?
- The maximum values for sea surface salinity are above 35.8 and the minimum is above
31.21.

31. Are there any trends in the salinity data? What are they?
- There is a seasonal trend in the salinity data through the year because it fluctuates around
the given data unit. In the months of January to July, the level of salinity varies greatly. At
certain points, the salinity surpasses 36 psu, while at other times, it drops to less than 31
psu.

32. Compare the data in Figure 18 between January and May 2018. Describe the relationship
between temperature and salinity variations.
- Both salinity and temperature witnessed the same fluctuation trend from Jan to May 2018.
However, the temperature variation is always shown under the salinity variation in this
period.

33. Can you observe the same trend you described in question 32 for the rest of the year?
- The rest of the year, both have inverse correlation.

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LAB 2.4 – BUBBLE CHARTS
Maritime disasters, such as marine pollution or shipwrecks, are a reality of human interactions
with the ocean. To study such events, scientists or historians may need to display data linked to
spatial locations on a map. In this part you will add to your knowledge of bathymetric charts
(Lab 2.2) by interpreting bubble charts, a way to visualize spatial data.

Bubble charts
Bubble charts display data with three variables by using marker size and/or color. These are
commonly used for data collected at different geographic locations. The map below (Figure
2.3.1) shows the size of several oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. The “bubbles” (blue circles) are
located at the latitude and longitude of each spill. The size of each bubble represents the
number of gallons of oil spilled. The legend on the right side of the map shows the gallons of oil
represented by different sized bubbles. The two largest bubbles are the 1979 Ixtoc I and
2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disasters.

Figure 19. Oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. Marker diameter represents the size of the spill in gallons.

Lab 2, Part 4: questions

34. The difference in size between smallest and largest oil spills shown on the map is
approximately (Figure 14.)
 100 gallons
 1000 gallons
 10,000 gallons
 100,000,000 gallons

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Figure 20. Oil spill size in the Gulf of Mexico

35. There was an oil spill off of the southeastern coast of Florida, at 26°N, 80°W in August 2000.
What was the approximate size of this spill in gallons of oil?
 15,000 gallons
 50,000 gallons
 5 million gallons
 200 million gallons

LAB 2.5 – STATION PROFILES, HOW TO READ A STANDARD

OCEANOGRAPHY GRAPH

Is there structure to the water in the ocean?

Although ocean water looks much the same wherever you go, once you start to measure properties
such as salinity and temperature you would see that there are considerable differences. A standard type
of graph used to examine some of these differences is called a station profile. Typically, these are graphs
showing a data type, such as temperature, salinity, or something else, plotted against the depth of the
water. Oceanographers make these graphs because many of the properties of seawater change with
depth.

Temperature is one property that does just this. Temperature often decreases as depth increases since
the source of the heat is the sun. Sunlight is quickly absorbed in the upper layers of water resulting in
higher temperatures there than in deeper water. To make a station profile for temperature you take all
the temperature data collected at one oceanographic station. This would be a place where the research
vessel stopped and lowered a temperature measuring device (one of the sensors on a CTD) into the
water and collected data as the instrument was lowered to the sea floor. A station profile plot shows
the way that temperature varies with increasing depth. Typically, station profiles are plotted with depth

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increasing down on the y-axis and the property of interest is plotted on the x-axis. This convention,
plotting with depth increasing down, is used because it makes it easier to picture the distribution of the
property in the ocean, where depth does increase in the downward direction.

Figure 21. Sea surface temperature anomaly (the difference between normal and observed temperatures) in September 2014
(Courtesy: NOAA Fisheries)

What can oceanographers learn from temperature data? Just as there are heat waves on the surface of
the Earth, there are heat waves in the ocean. One such oceanic heat wave occurred from 2013 to 2015.
During this time there was a huge pool of warm water in the Pacific, nicknamed The Blob by the office
of the Washington State Climatologist. Figure 2.4.1 shows the difference in sea surface temperature
between “normal” times and the time when The Blob was present in the North Pacific. The huge area
covered in red shows the location of the anomalously warm water. This feature was not just interesting
to those who study ocean temperature. The high temperatures of this water impacted the weather
along the west coast of the U.S. and adversely impacted marine life because it was missing some of the
chemicals necessary for the marine algae called phytoplankton. Those climatologists seem to have a
sense of humor! The cause of The Blob is linked to a persistent high-pressure ridge in the atmosphere,
nicknamed The Ridiculously Resilient Ridge. In the activity below you will work with a type of graph
called a station profile. This kind of data in The Blob helped oceanographers figure out the depth of the
warm water and how much heat it contained.

Station Profiles Exploration

The map in Figure 21 shows the surface area of The Blob. But how deep is this anomalously warm
water? A plot showing the temperature of the water with depth, called a station profile, can be used to
answer this question, especially if we compare a station profile from a “normal” time to one from The
Blob.

The station profile below (Figure 22) shows the temperature in the North Pacific at a time before The
Blob developed. It shows a few things that are often present in station profiles, a surface mixed layer, a

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depth range where the temperature undergoes significant change (called the thermocline) and a deeper
layer with either uniformly cold water or very small changes in temperature with increasing depth.
The surface mixed layer often is mixed due to the action of currents and waves, although in some places
and seasons mixing may occur due to heat being removed from the surface water. The result would be
that the water would become colder, and therefore denser so it would sink. But regardless of the cause
of the mixing, the surface x layer is easy to identify because of its uniform temperature.

Figure 22. Temperature profile of upper 300 meters at Station Papa in 2013. (Data courtesy NOAA PMEL).

Lab 2, Part 5: questions

36. In the profile Figure 22., the top of the surface mixed layer is, obviously, the surface of the
ocean. What is the depth of the bottom of the mixed layer?
 300 m
 100 m
 50 m
 1500 m

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Figure 23. Temperature profile in the blob.

37. How deep is the surface mixed layer in the Blob (Figure 23)? Estimate to the best of your
ability from the graph.
 50 m
 70 m
 700 m
 100 m
 120 m

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To see the effect of The Blob on the waters in the North Pacific it is useful to examine both profiles on
the same set of axes, as shown below (Figure 24).

Figure 24. Comparison oif temperature profiles before the blop and during the blop development.

38. Based on this figure 24, how much warmer was surface water during The Blob compared to a
“normal” time?
 4oC
 9oC
 1oC
 2oC

In this introduction to station profiles, we have examined temperature. But also useful are profiles of
other water properties, such as salinity and density. These profiles also often show a surface mixed
layer, a “cline” (halocline in the case of salinity and pycnocline in the case of density) and a deeper layer
of uniform, or slowly changing, properties.

Now that you have practiced reading profile graphs, we will put your skills to use to examine
temperature profiles at different locations in the North Atlantic Ocean. Below is a station profile
showing temperature at the Coastal Pioneer array, off the mid-Atlantic U.S. coast.

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Figure 25. Temperature profile at the coastal pioneer station.

39. What is the minimum temperature in this profile (figure 25)?

 12oC
 11oC
 13oC
 14oC

40. What is the maximum temperature in this profile (figure 25)?

 14oC
 15oC
 16oC
 17oC

41. How does the temperature of the water change as you go deeper in the water?
(Figure 25)

 The water temperature decreases.

 The water temperature rises.

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 42. The depth range where the temperature changes the most rapidly is called thermocline. What
is the depth of the bottom of the thermocline in this profile? Figure 25
 Ca. 80 m
 Ca. 75 m
 Ca. 60 m
 Ca. 50 m

43. North Atlantic fin whales migrate through the area of the Pioneer array. These whales breathe
air at the surface and dive to feed on krill, squid, and other prey. If a fin whale dove from the
surface to 100 meters deep at the time and location that this profile was collected, how much
change in temperature would it experience? (Assume that surface temperatures are
equivalent to the temperature at a depth of 35 meters) figure 25
 5oC
 4oC
 3oC
 2oC

Figure 26. Comparison of temperature depth profiles at the coastal pioneer and the Irminger sea station.

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44. At which station is the ocean temperature lower? (Figure 26)
 Coastal pioneer
 Irminger Sea

45. What is the main plotting difference between the two different stations? (Figure 26)
- The main plotting difference between the two is temperature in Irminger Sea decreases
faster than Coastal pioneer at the beginning of the depth (between 0-200 meter) and then
go down and straight to 2400 meters with the temperature around only 2-3 Celsius. While
the Coastal Sea only collects the data to 100 meters and focuses on the smaller unit’s
statistic of the depth, the data creates a lower slope to go down from 17 Celsius Degree to
12 Celsius Degree.

46. What is the bottom of the thermocline at the Irminger sea station? (Figure 26)
- The bottom of the thermocline at the Irminger sea station is at 200 meters at 4 Celsius
Degree.

47. Guess why there is a temperature difference between the two profiles? You can use google to
look up the locations of the coastal pioneer array and the Irminger see location. (Figure 26)
- The Coastal pioneer array located off the coast of New England with the upper slope, high
wind, wave, and current regimes on the continental self. While the Irminger sea is in the
North Atlantic Ocean which borders Greenland where 80 percent of the island is covered in
a permanent ice sheet and near North Pole that is uninhabitable. So that is the reason why
Irminger sea has a lower temperature than the coastal pioneer.

48. If you really want to compare the two profiles, what would you need to do? (Figure 26)
- I think we should know the location of each profile, same depth and temperature scale
measurement, looking for the internal and external factors that have impact on the change
of both profiles.

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