ALAMINOS Cruise Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1969

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data collected during the ALAMINOS cruise in the Gulf of Mexico from September 9 to 21, 1969. The dataset consists of temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters. 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 (0-285m) using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying short-term oceanographic variability during a specific cruise using date, time, and position columns.
• Benchmarking historical sea surface and subsurface temperature conditions in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Validating ocean model outputs for the region against in-situ profile observations.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a documented NODC standard format (C128), ensuring consistency.
• Profiles provide high vertical resolution with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.
• Cruise metadata (date, position, time) is reported for each observation, providing spatiotemporal context.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• The MBT instrument limits observations to the upper ~285 meters of the ocean, excluding deeper thermal features.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1969-09-09 to 1969-09-21

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:21:30.563168 (metadata update on datagov)

Geography

Gulf of Mexico (ALAMINOS cruise)