North Atlantic Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1968-1969

Approximately 285 meters is the maximum depth for temperature-depth profiles collected by mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments. The dataset contains processed observations from ten vessels in the North Atlantic Ocean over a three-month period from November 1968 to February 1969. Data were standardized into the NODC C128 format by the National Oceanographic Data Center.

Use Cases

• Analyzing seasonal thermal structure changes in the upper 285 meters of the North Atlantic using temperature-depth pairs.
• Correlating cruise-specific oceanographic conditions with recorded date, position, and time metadata.
• Studying spatial temperature gradients across the operational areas of the ten listed research vessels.
• Validating historical ocean model simulations for the late 1960s using standardized NODC C128 format data.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a consistent standard format (NODC C128) ensuring interoperability.
• Temperature values are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating systematic analysis.
• Covers a specific three-month campaign with observations from ten distinct vessels, providing spatial variety.

Limitations

• Key structural metadata such as row count, column names, and file size are unavailable from all sources.
• The mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument limits observations to the upper ocean (max ~285 m).
• Sources conflict on the 'last updated' date, reporting either 1969-02-22 or a future date of 2026-03 06.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC).

Time Range

1968-11-19 to 1969-02-22

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:22:06.291672

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean