Historical North Atlantic Ocean Temperature and Salinity Profiles

This dataset contains bathythermograph and ocean station data from the research vessel EASTWARD, collected over three days in June 1972 in the North Atlantic Ocean. It was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into standard C100 (Ocean Station) and C128 (Mechanical Bathythermograph) formats. The records include temperature, salinity, and other chemical parameters at discrete and interpolated standard depth levels.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean using MBT temperature-depth profile pairs.
• Studying correlations between measured parameters like temperature, salinity, and derived values such as density (sigma-t) or sound velocity at standard depth levels.
• Investigating spatial variability of physical-chemical properties (e.g., dissolved oxygen, phosphate, silicate) from discrete bottle cast and CTD/STD data.
• Using reported cruise metadata, position, date, and meteorological conditions (air temperature, wind) to contextualize oceanographic observations.

Strengths

• Data adheres to established NODC standard formats (C100 and C128), ensuring consistent structure.
• Includes both directly observed measurements and values interpolated to standard depth levels for comparability.
• Covers multiple parameters: principal measurements of temperature and salinity, plus potential chemical and meteorological variables.

Limitations

• Key metadata like row count, column names, and file size are unavailable from all sources.
• The MBT instrument limits depth coverage to approximately 285 meters, restricting analysis to the ocean's upper layers.
• Sources conflict on the 'last updated' date, listing either 1972-06-27 or a future date of 2026-04-01.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce; data processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC).

Collection Method

Observations from the vessel EASTWARD using mechanical bathythermographs (MBT), multi-bottle Nansen casts, and a small percentage of electronic CTD/STD recorders.

Time Range

1972-06-25 to 1972-06-27

Freshness

1972-06-27

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean