Southern Ocean Temperature Profiles from Ship-Based XBTs in 2016

Over 100 days of oceanographic water temperature profiles were collected from expendable bathythermographs (XBTs) deployed from four commercial and research vessels. Australia's CSIRO submitted these quality-controlled measurements for the Global Temperature and Salinity Profile Programme. Data collection spanned from February to December 2016.

Use Cases

• Analyze vertical temperature structure and thermocline depth from XBT profile data.
• Correlate sea surface temperature anomalies with subsurface measurements from specific platforms like Maersk Jalan.
• Map spatial temperature gradients across the South Pacific Ocean, Tasman Sea, and Coral Sea regions covered by the ships.
• Validate satellite-derived sea surface temperature products using in-situ profile data from the Ship Observations Team.
• Study seasonal temperature changes in the Southern Ocean from February to December 2016.

Strengths

• Data underwent quality control procedures before submission.
• Profiles cover multiple distinct ocean basins: South Pacific, Tasman Sea, Southern Ocean, Coral Sea, and Indian Ocean.
• Measurements were collected from four different platforms, providing spatial variety.

Limitations

• The exact number of profiles (rows) and measurement depth levels is unknown.
• Data is limited to a single year (2016), preventing long-term trend analysis.
• Geographic coverage is constrained to the specific shipping routes of the four vessels.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI Accession 0157632).

Collection Method

Temperature profiles collected from expendable bathythermographs (XBTs) deployed from ships as part of the Ship of Opportunity Programme.

Time Range

2016-02-10 to 2016-12-03

Freshness

Data collection ended on 2016-12-03; no updates are expected for this specific accession.

Geography

South Pacific Ocean, Tasman Sea, Southern Ocean, Coral Sea, and Indian Ocean.