North Atlantic Ocean Station and Bathythermograph Data from 1971-1972

This dataset contains oceanographic measurements from the research vessel EASTWARD in the North Atlantic Ocean, collected between July 1971 and November 1972. Data is processed into two standard NODC formats: C100 for discrete-depth physical-chemical station data and C128 for mechanical bathythermograph temperature-depth profiles. It includes parameters like temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, and derived properties, along with cruise metadata and meteorological observations.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) using MBT temperature-depth profile pairs from the C128 format.
• Studying the relationship between physical (temperature, salinity, density) and chemical (oxygen, phosphate, nitrate, silicate) parameters at discrete depth levels from the C100 station data.
• Investigating surface meteorological conditions (air temperature, pressure, wind, waves) concurrent with oceanographic casts.
• Examining water clarity and optical properties using auxiliary data like Secchi disk depth and Forel-Ule water color scale.
• Calculating derived oceanographic variables such as sigma-t density, sound velocity, and dynamic depth anomaly from the measured parameters.

Strengths

• Data adheres to established NODC standard formats (C100 and C128), ensuring structured processing and interoperability.
• Includes both directly measured parameters and derived computed values (e.g., density, sound velocity).
• Covers a specific 16-month time range (1971-07-19 to 1972-11-04) from a single vessel cruise, providing temporal consistency.

Limitations

• Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data is limited to the upper ocean, with a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Key quantitative details like total row count, file size, and complete column list are unavailable from the provided sources.
• A small conflict exists: the last_updated date on datagov (2026-03 05) is a future date and likely a metadata error, conflicting with the actual data collection end date (1972-11-04).

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originating from NODC (National Oceanographic Data Center) processing.

Collection Method

Observations primarily from multi-bottle Nansen casts and mechanical bathythermographs (MBT), with about 5% from early electronic CTD/STD recorders reported at equivalent depth levels.

Time Range

1971-07-19 to 1972-11-04

Freshness

1972-11 04 00:00:00

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean, from the research vessel EASTWARD.