African Crescent MBT Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1966

North Atlantic Ocean temperature-depth profiles were collected by the vessel AFRICAN CRESCENT using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) from June 22 to July 1, 1966. The dataset, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the C128 standard format, contains pairs of temperature and depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters. It provides a snapshot of the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers during this specific cruise.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean using paired temperature-depth columns.
• Studying short-term oceanic temperature variability during a specific cruise period using date, time, and position columns.
• Calibrating or validating historical ocean model outputs for the North Atlantic region using instrument-measured profiles.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring a consistent structure for analysis.
• Temporal and spatial scope is precisely defined for a 10-day cruise in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Limitations

• The dataset is limited to the upper 285 meters of the ocean, restricting analysis of deeper thermal features.
• Exact column names, row counts, and dataset size are unknown from the provided sources.
• The data is from a single, brief period in 1966, limiting analysis of long-term trends.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed to NODC standard format.

Time Range

1966-06-22 to 1966-07-01

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:24:04.852713

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean