Historical Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from Gulf of Mexico and North Atlantic

Temperature-depth profiles from the mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument, recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters. The dataset covers observations from the research vessels ALAMINOS and CRAWFORD in the Gulf of Mexico and North Atlantic Ocean. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying seasonal or interannual temperature variability from 1960 to 1968 using cruise date and time.
• Mapping historical ocean temperature conditions in specific regions using position (latitude/longitude) data.
• Calibrating or validating ocean model simulations for the upper 285 meters of the water column.

Strengths

• Data is standardized in the NODC C128 format, ensuring a consistent structure for temperature-depth pairs.
• Provides a multi-year time series from 1960-03 15 to 1968-11-04 for studying decadal-scale changes.
• Includes precise metadata for each observation: cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Row count, column names, and exact dataset size are unknown across all platforms.
• Instrument limitation: MBT data is only useful for the upper ocean, with a maximum observation depth of ~285 meters.
• Conflicting 'last updated' metadata: datagov lists 2026-04-01 (likely administrative), while nasa_earthdata lists the final data date of 1968-11-04.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Observations collected using the Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from research vessels, processed by NODC.

Time Range

1960-03-15 to 1968-11-04

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:23:59.100669

Geography

Gulf of Mexico and North Atlantic Ocean