Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from the BROUGH Expedition

1957-09-05 to 1959-03-03 data comprises temperature-depth profiles from the BROUGH expedition across six oceanic regions, including the Arabian Sea and Southern Ocean. The dataset contains observations processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format for Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) data. Each profile provides paired temperature and depth values at uniform 5-meter intervals, capturing the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) across six distinct sea regions.
• Studying historical ocean temperature gradients using uniform 5-meter depth interval measurements.
• Correlating cruise information, date, position, and time with observed temperature-depth profiles.
• Investigating seasonal or spatial variability in near-surface ocean layers from the late 1950s.

Strengths

• Provides a consistent time-series from a specific expedition over an 18-month period (1957-1959).
• Data is processed to a documented standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural consistency.
• Covers a wide geographic scope across six major oceanic regions, from the Bering Sea to the Southern Ocean.

Limitations

• Instrument limitation restricts observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Exact row count, column names, and dataset size are unknown from available metadata.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between platforms (2026-03-06 vs. 1959-03-03).

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), from the BROUGH expedition.

Collection Method

Observations gathered using Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instruments and processed by NODC to the C128 format.

Time Range

1957-09-05 to 1959-03-03

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:10:07.543800

Geography

Arabian Sea, Bering Sea, Laccadive Sea, North Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean, Southern Ocean