Optical, chlorophyll-a, primary productivity - phytoplankton, and other parameters taken by CTD, bottle sample analysis, and optical profiler during multiple expeditions in the South China Sea from 2009-07-22 to 2012-08-14 (NCEI Accession 0211060)

This database contains coincident profiles of primary productivity and downwelling radiance spectra obtained in the South China Sea. These data were taken at stations occupied within 15-23° N and 105-121° E during four oceanographic expeditions from 2009 to 2011. Profiles of downwelling irradiance, Ed(λ,z), were obtained with an Optical Profiler II (Satlantic, Inc., Halifax, NS, Canada), and processed using Satlantic software (Prosoft 7.7.10). The spectral range of the data was 350 - 700 nm and the spectral interval was 1 nm. Three profiles were obtained near local noon at each station, with instruments deployed approximately 10 m away to avoid ship shadow and reflection. The final Ed(λ,z) profiles at each station are based on the average of the three profiles. The vertical profiles of the Usable Solar Radiation, USR(z), were obtained by integrating Ed(λ,z) from 400 nm to 560 nm for each depth, while vertical profiles of PAR(z) were from Ed(λ,z) integrated between 400 nm and 700 nm. Data are in xlsx format and converted to CSV.