Historical XBT Temperature Profiles from North Pacific Cruises

Seventeen ships across twenty-four cruises collected this dataset of water temperature profiles using bathythermographs (BT/XBT). The data spans nearly two decades, from July 16, 1971, to April 30, 1990, primarily in the North Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Navy recorded the original stripcharts, which were later digitized and submitted to the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) by the Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center.

Use Cases

• Analyzing decadal-scale temperature changes in the North Pacific Ocean's upper water column.
• Calibrating or validating historical ocean reanalysis models and climate simulations.
• Studying the spatial and temporal distribution of temperature profiles from ship-based expeditions.

Strengths

• Data collection is detailed, involving 17 ships and 24 distinct cruises.
• The time series covers a long historical period of nearly 19 years (1971-1990).
• Original analog stripcharts were professionally digitized into a standard NODC C116 file format.

Limitations

• Specific column names, row counts, and dataset size are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date, reporting either 1990-04-30 or 2026-03-05.
• The exact spatial coverage beyond 'North Pacific Ocean' and the data license are unknown.

Provenance

Source

Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center, Monterey, CA, submitted to NODC.

Collection Method

Real-time water temperature at varying depths recorded via bathythermograph (XBT) on ship cruises.

Time Range

1971-07-16 to 1990-04-30

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:31:49.525833

Geography

North Pacific Ocean