Historical North Pacific Ocean Temperature Profiles from Alexander Agassiz

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data from the R/V Alexander Agassiz cruise in the North Pacific Ocean, spanning July 9-26, 1969. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format. Its presence across multiple government platforms indicates its established role in historical oceanographic research.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying short-term oceanographic variability during a specific July 1969 cruise using date, time, and position columns.
• Calibrating or validating models of historical sea surface temperature and mixed layer depth.
• Investigating the spatial distribution of temperature in the North Pacific Ocean for the given cruise track.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known, documented standard (NODC C128 format) ensuring consistent structure.
• Temperature readings are recorded at a uniform 5-meter depth interval, facilitating systematic analysis.
• Each observation includes associated metadata: cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Key metadata conflicts: 'last updated' is reported as 2026-03-06 on Data.gov but 1969-07-26 on NASA EarthData.
• Critical descriptive facts (row count, file size, specific column names, license) are unavailable from all sources.
• MBT instrument limitation: maximum observation depth is only ~285 meters, restricting analysis to the upper ocean.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), from NODC processing.

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during a research vessel cruise.

Time Range

1969-07-09 to 1969-07-26

Freshness

2026-03 06 00:11:58.270296

Geography

North Pacific Ocean