Historical North Pacific Ocean Temperature Depth Profiles

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data from the vessel ANTIGONISH captures temperature-depth profiles in the North Pacific Ocean. The dataset consists of observations taken between August 1951 and July 1953, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format. Each record includes cruise information, date, position, time, and paired temperature-depth values.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean layers using temperature-depth pairs recorded at 5-meter intervals.
• Studying seasonal or interannual variability in near-surface ocean temperatures in the North Pacific from 1951 to 1953.
• Validating or extending historical ocean climate models with precisely dated and located profile data.
• Investigating the operational history and data characteristics of the Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a documented standard format (NODC C128), ensuring consistency.
• Provides a focused temporal record over a nearly two-year period (1951-08-11 to 1953-07-22).
• Includes precise metadata for each observation: cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Key technical specifications are unknown, including row count, column names, and dataset size.
• The MBT instrument's maximum depth of approximately 285 meters limits analysis to the upper ocean layers only.
• Conflicting 'last updated' metadata exists between platforms (2026 vs. 1953), casting doubt on provenance timeliness.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Collected via Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed to NODC C128 format.

Time Range

1951-08-11 to 1953-07-22

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:50:18.751334

Geography

North Pacific Ocean, specific to the cruise track of the vessel ANTIGONISH.