On October 28, 2000 Royal Caribbean International’s newest ship, the Explorer of the Seas, began weekly cruises through the Caribbean from Miami. This ship is unique in that it is outfitted with state-of-the-art oceanographic and atmospheric laboratories. It represents an unprecedented collaboration between Royal Caribbean International, the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In addition to an initial expenditure of over $1.5 million, Royal Caribbean provides space for 2 labs, 2 cabins for technicians and visiting researchers, and logistical support. Scientists from RSMAS, NOAA, NSF, and other institutions provide scientific instruments to monitor the atmosphere and the ocean. Every week, a technician from RSMAS sails with the ship to operate the equipment and a visiting scientist goes along to give presentations to the passengers and conduct tours. A complete list of the on board sensors can be found at http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/rccl/facilities.html.

Because ship time on research vessels can cost up to $20,000 a day, the Explorer of the Seas affords scientists an opportunity to gather data that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive. In addition, the fact that the ship regularly repeats the same cruise tracks allows them to detect small changes in the ocean and atmosphere on a weekly basis. Eventually, a long series of high quality observations will be available that will provide new insights on weekly, monthly, seasonal, and longer time cycles.

In February 2002, the Global Carbon Group at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) installed an instrument to measure CO2 in surface water in the Ocean Lab on Explorer of the Seas. The instrument takes 20 measurements every hour while the ship is underway. Every week the data is downloaded and quality controlled at AOML (usually by the middle of the week), and then the final data file is posted to this web site. Files are arranged by year and quarter (Jan. – March, April – June, etc.) and named using the cruise designation EXyywwd.csv where yy is the 2-digit year, ww is the week number, and d is either E or W depending on whether the ship took the easterly or westerly route. Each file has an accompanying README file. Links to download the data and README files appear next to a cruise track map for each cruise that is color coded by pCO2 level. To download a particular file, select the year from the drop-down list box and click on GO. All data files for a quarter will be on one page.

For the very first time, NOAA is inserting quality controlled thermosalinograph (TSG) data in near real-time into the Global Telecommunication System (GTS) from the Explorer of the Seas. Sea surface salinity (SSS) and sea surface temperature (SST) data gathered automatically in real-time from the TSG on the Explorer of the Seas complement those from other observations, such as profiling floats, by providing excellent spatial resolution in repeated transects. The GTS transmits meteorological, oceanographic, and climate data globally for members of the World Meteorological Organication. Sea surface salinity data in the GTS are now available to initialize climate and weather forecast models and will be very beneficial to AOML researchers for upcoming salinity-satellite related calibration and validation projects.