Atlantic Ocean Temperature Profiles from ATLANTIS 2 Cruise, 1979

October 10 to November 3, 1979 temperature-depth profiles collected via expendable bathythermograph (XBT) casts from the R/V ATLANTIS 2 in the Atlantic Ocean. Data were submitted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for the IDOE/POLYMODE project and processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the Universal Bathythermograph Output (UBT) format. Each profile consists of paired temperature and depth values recorded at inflection points to define the temperature curve.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical thermal structure by examining paired temperature-depth values from individual casts.
• Studying short-term oceanographic variability during the late 1970s using date, time, and position data for each profile.
• Comparing inflection-point sampling in XBT data against uniform-interval data from other instruments like MBTs.
• Investigating upper ocean dynamics (up to 1830 m) for the POLYMODE project's focus on mesoscale eddies.

Strengths

• Data originates from a major research institution (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) and a coordinated international project (IDOE/POLYMODE).
• Profiles use inflection-point recording, which captures the essential shape of the temperature curve with minimal data points.
• Explicit temporal coverage of a 25-day cruise in October-November 1979 provides a focused snapshot.
• Instrument capability allows for measurements to depths of 450 m, 760 m, or up to 1830 m with special XBTs.

Limitations

• Exact row count, file size, and column names are unknown across all platform descriptions.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates: datagov lists 2026-03-05, while nasa_earthdata lists 1979-11 03.
• License information is not provided in any source description.

Provenance

Source

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC).

Collection Method

Collected using expendable bathythermograph (XBT) casts from the R/V ATLANTIS 2.

Time Range

1979-10-10 to 1979.11-03

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:50:58.190069

Geography

Atlantic Ocean