North Atlantic Ocean Temperature Profiles from NOAA Ship Researcher (1972)

North Atlantic Ocean temperature-depth profiles were collected using expendable bathythermograph (XBT) and bathythermograph (BT) casts from NOAA Ship RESEARCHER between 11 July 1972 and 29 November 1972. Data were processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the Universal Bathythermograph Output (UBT) format, which records temperature at non-uniform inflection points to accurately capture the profile curve. This dataset was collected with support from the International Field Year for the Great Lakes (IFYGL) project.

Use Cases

• Analyzing ocean thermal structure based on paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying seasonal temperature changes in the North Atlantic Ocean during 1972.
• Calibrating or validating ocean models using historical in-situ temperature profiles.
• Investigating the performance and data characteristics of XBT and BT instrumentation.

Strengths

• Data covers a specific, well-documented five-month time range from July to November 1972.
• Profiles are processed to a standard NODC format (UBT) with documented inflection-point recording for accuracy.
• Dataset is hosted on multiple authoritative platforms (Data.gov, NASA Earthdata), indicating curation and importance.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: exact row count, file size, column names, and specific license are unknown.
• Platforms provide conflicting 'last updated' dates (1972 vs. 2026), creating uncertainty about maintenance.
• The dataset's scale is limited to a single ship's cruise over one season.

Provenance

Source

National Ocean Service (NOS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Collection Method

Collected using XBT and BT casts from NOAA Ship RESEARCHER.

Time Range

1972-07-11 to 1972-11-29

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:25:35.097121

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean