Historical North Atlantic Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1969

Mechanical bathythermograph data from 11 vessels in the North Atlantic Ocean during July to September 1969. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum of approximately 285 meters. It was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the summer thermal structure of the North Atlantic's upper ocean using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying spatial and temporal variability of near-surface ocean temperatures from cruise-based observations.
• Calibrating or validating ocean model simulations for the 1969 period with in-situ profile data.
• Investigating the relationship between cruise location, date, time, and observed temperature gradients.

Strengths

• Data is standardized into the NODC C128 format, ensuring a consistent structure for analysis.
• Provides a focused temporal snapshot from a specific summer season (1969-07-01 to 1969-09-30).
• Includes metadata for each observation such as cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• The maximum observation depth of ~285m limits utility to studying only the upper ocean layers.
• Key quantitative details like total row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from the provided sources.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' metadata between platforms (2026 vs. 1969), casting doubt on provenance maintenance.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC.

Time Range

1969-07-01 to 1969-09-30

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:47:36.798739

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean