Oil on the water surface, on marshes, and on beaches can be seen by the naked eye, allowing removal efforts to be carried out. However, subsurface oil (oil in the deep water) often requires the need for highly specialized instruments to detect very low concentrations of oil, due both to its location and to chemical and physical changes it has undergone.  To date, government and academic oceanographers, chemists,and biologists onshore and on a fleet of vessels operating in the Gulf have collected tens of thousands of samples. The data from the subsurface oil monitoring program support a step-by-step process leading to oil removal and restoration of the Gulf.  Data collected in the Gulf are being catalogued and posted on NOAA’s National Oceanographic Data Center.

Data from NOAA, and its federal and academic partners’ gulf science missions are being made available at NOAA’s National Oceanographic Data Center.

Subsurface Oil Monitoring

• Report by the Operational Science Advisory Team providing a summary and analysis of data from the subsurface monitoring program, including links to the datasets are available at: http://www.restorethegulf.gov/release/2010/12/16/data-analysis-and-findings

• Details on the systematic and comprehensive subsurface oil monitoring program NOAA is leading for the Unified Area Command may be found at RestoreTheGulf.gov
• Data from NOAA, and its federal and academic partners’ gulf science missions is being made available at NOAA’s National Oceanographic Data Center 

Additional

• Analytical Chemistry Data from the R/V Brooks McCall
• Data Dictionary [xls]
• Brooks McCall Cruise 1- May 8, 2010 [xls] | Metadata [pdf]
• Brooks McCall Cruise 2 - May 15, 2010 [xls] | Metadata [pdf]
• Brooks McCall Cruise 3 - May 19, 2010 [xls] | Metadata [pdf]
• Brooks McCall Cruise 4 - May 23, 2010 [xls] | Metadata [pdf]
• Brooks McCall Cruise 5 - May 30, 2010 [xls] | Metadata [pdf]

See Joint Anaylsis Group section below for analysis of subsurface data

 

Ocean Currents

• Daily Ocean Conditions in the Gulf, AOML Mission Archives
  
• NOAA P3 Aircraft Loop Current Monitoring Flights XBTs data
  
• Temperature and Salinity Data from Nine Gliders
  
• Eleven Floats – Current location of floats and CTD data
  
• Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPPS)
  
• Tide and Current Information
• Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS)        
  
• Historical Ocean and Current Data for Gulf of Mexico 
  
• Daily surface oil trajectory map