Bering Sea Temperature-Depth Profiles from SONNY BOY Cruise 1966

June to July 1966 temperature-depth profiles from the SONNY BOY cruise in the Bering Sea, collected using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT). The dataset, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into standard C128 format, contains pairs of temperature and depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, focusing on the upper ocean layers. It is managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying seasonal oceanographic conditions in the Bering Sea during summer 1966.
• Validating or calibrating regional ocean models with historical in-situ profile data.
• Investigating cruise-specific spatial and temporal patterns using reported position, date, and time for each observation.

Strengths

• Provides a focused time series from a specific research cruise over a 50-day period in 1966.
• Data is processed and standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring a consistent structure.
• Temperature values are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating systematic analysis.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, license, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• Instrument limitation: MBT data is only useful for the upper ocean, with a maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) measurements processed by NODC to C128 format.

Time Range

1966-06-04 to 1966-07-23

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:15:20.946948

Geography

Bering Sea