Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from the A. A. JAKKULA (1951-1957)

1951-01-13 to 1957-06-28 temperature-depth profiles collected by the vessel A. A. JAKKULA in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and North Atlantic Ocean. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format for Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) observations. This dataset captures the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical upper-ocean thermal structure using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying seasonal or interannual temperature variability in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico from cruise-based observations.
• Validating or providing historical context for ocean model simulations in the North Atlantic region.
• Mapping the vertical temperature gradient at uniform 5-meter depth intervals for specific locations and times.

Strengths

• Provides a continuous 6.5-year time series of ocean observations from 1951 to 1957.
• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring consistent structure for temperature-depth profile pairs.
• Includes precise metadata for each observation: cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Instrument limitation: MBT maximum depth is ~285m, restricting analysis to the ocean's upper layers only.
• Conflicting metadata: The 'last updated' date differs significantly between platforms (2026-04-01 on Data.gov vs. 1957-06-28 on NASA EarthData).
• Core dataset metrics (row count, column names, file size) are unknown across all sources.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

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

Time Range

1951-01-13 to 1957-06-28

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:27:10.637186

Geography

Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, North Atlantic Ocean