Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from R/V Atlantis Cruises

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data documents temperature-depth profiles from the R/V Atlantis research vessel across multiple ocean basins. The dataset contains observations from the Caribbean Sea, North and South Atlantic, and North and South Pacific Oceans, recorded between November 1948 and August 1962. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the standard C128 format, with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals up to approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical sea surface temperature and subsurface thermal structure using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying spatial patterns of ocean heat content in the upper 285 meters across major ocean basins.
• Validating and calibrating ocean climate models with in-situ temperature profile data from the mid-20th century.
• Examining cruise-based oceanographic expeditions by correlating temperature data with reported date, position, and time.

Strengths

• Provides a multi-decade time series spanning nearly 14 years (1948-1962).
• Covers a wide geographic area including five major ocean regions.
• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring a consistent structure for analysis.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at a uniform vertical resolution of 5-meter intervals.

Limitations

• Instrument depth limit of ~285 m restricts analysis to the ocean's upper layer only.
• Specific row count, file size, and complete column schema are not provided by any source.
• Conflicting last updated dates exist between platforms (2026-03-06 on datagov vs. 1962-08-06 on nasa_earthdata).

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument aboard the R/V Atlantis and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1948-11-05 to 1962-08-06

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:12:46.085083

Geography

Caribbean Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean, South Pacific Ocean.