Historical North Pacific Ocean Temperature Profiles from R/V Black Douglas

North Pacific Ocean temperature-depth profiles collected by the vessel BLACK DOUGLAS using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) from April 3 to April 16, 1951. The dataset, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the C128 standard format, contains pairs of temperature and depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters. It provides a snapshot of the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers during this specific cruise.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean (0-285m) using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying historical ocean conditions for climate change baselines based on cruise date, position, and time metadata.
• Investigating short-term (two-week) temperature variability in a specific North Pacific region during April 1951.
• Calibrating or validating ocean model simulations for the mid-20th century using instrument-specific (MBT) profile data.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring consistent structure for temperature-depth profile pairs.
• Provides precise temporal (April 3-16, 1951) and spatial (North Pacific Ocean) context for each observation.
• Temperature values are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating systematic analysis of the water column.

Limitations

• Limited to the upper ocean, with a maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Sources conflict on the dataset's freshness: one platform lists a last update in 2026, while another shows the original collection date in 1951.
• Critical metadata such as row count, file size, specific column names, and license information are unavailable from all sources.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during a research cruise and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1951-04-03 to 1951-04-16

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:12:13.532225

Geography

North Pacific Ocean, cruise track of R/V BLACK DOUGLAS