ALLEGHENY Ship Bathythermograph Profiles from Persian Gulf, 1951-1952

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data contains mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) temperature-depth profiles collected by the vessel ALLEGHENY in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz. The dataset covers a specific cruise from November 1951 to April 1952, processed into the NODC standard C128 format. It provides paired temperature and depth measurements at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum of approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing seasonal temperature changes in the Persian Gulf's upper 285 meters during 1951-1952.
• Calibrating or validating regional ocean model hindcasts using historical in-situ profile data.
• Studying the vertical thermal gradient structure at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.
• Correlating cruise-specific location and time metadata with other historical oceanographic records.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a documented standard format (NODC C128) ensuring structural consistency.
• Provides precise temporal coverage for a specific cruise from 1951-11-24 to 1952-04-10.
• Includes core metadata fields: cruise information, date, position, and time for each observation.

Limitations

• The exact row count, column names, and dataset size are unknown across all sources.
• Instrument limitation: MBT data is only useful for the upper ocean layers, with a maximum depth of ~285 meters.
• Conflicting 'last updated' metadata: datagov reports 2026-03-05, while nasa_earthdata reports the original data date of 1952-04 10.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Temperature-depth profiles obtained using the mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument, processed by NODC.

Time Range

1951-11-24 to 1952-04-10

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:15:10.051741

Geography

Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz