Historical Bathythermograph Data from the North Pacific Ocean

NOAA_NCEI provides temperature-depth profile data collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) from the vessel BLACK DOUGLAS in the North Pacific Ocean. The dataset contains observations recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, with a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, focusing on the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers. Data points include cruise information, date, position, and time for each profile collected during a specific cruise from August 2 to August 17, 1951.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean layers using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying historical ocean conditions in the North Pacific Ocean using geospatial and temporal coordinates.
• Calibrating or validating oceanographic models with in-situ temperature profile data.
• Investigating short-term ocean variability during a specific cruise period using time-series data.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized format (NODC C128), ensuring consistency.
• Provides precise temporal coverage for a specific research cruise from 1951-08-02 to 1951-08-17.
• Observations are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating systematic analysis.

Limitations

• The dataset's utility is limited to the upper ocean layers due to the MBT instrument's maximum depth of ~285 meters.
• Critical metadata such as row count, column names, and license information are unknown.
• A conflict exists in the 'last updated' field between platforms (2026-03-05 on datagov vs. 1951-08-17 on nasa_earthdata).

Provenance

Source

NOAA_NCEI

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed to NODC standard C128 format.

Time Range

1951-08-02 to 1951-08-17

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:06:58.045503

Geography

North Pacific Ocean