North Pacific Ocean Temperature Profiles from CAYUSE Cruise

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the CAYUSE cruise captures 14 months of temperature-depth profiles in the North Pacific Ocean. The dataset, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center, contains observations from January 1970 to March 1971. It is structured in the NODC standard C128 format, with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.

Use Cases

• Analyzing seasonal changes in sea surface temperature and mixed layer depth using temperature-depth pairs.
• Mapping the thermal structure of the upper 285 meters of the North Pacific Ocean using geospatial position data.
• Studying historical ocean conditions by correlating temperature profiles with recorded cruise date and time.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized NODC format (C128), ensuring consistent structure.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at a uniform 5-meter vertical resolution, enabling precise profile analysis.
• Each observation includes associated metadata such as cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• The maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters limits analysis to the ocean's upper layers only.
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from the provided sources.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' date between platforms (2026-03-06 on datagov vs. 1971-03-21 on nasa_earthdata).

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during the CAYUSE cruise and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1970-01-13 to 1971-03-21

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:26:52.132908

Geography

North Pacific Ocean.