Mechanical Bathythermograph Data from the North Pacific Ocean

This dataset contains temperature-depth profiles collected using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) from the vessel CAYUSE in the North Pacific Ocean. The data, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the C128 standard format, covers a short cruise from June 26 to July 1, 1970. It is structured as pairs of temperature-depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, useful for studying the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285 m) using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying short-term, localized oceanographic conditions from a specific cruise (CAYUSE) in June-July 1970.
• Providing a historical baseline for temperature profiles in the North Pacific Ocean region.
• Validating or calibrating ocean models with in-situ temperature observations at 5-meter depth intervals.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a documented standard format (NODC C128), ensuring consistent structure.
• Each observation includes associated metadata such as cruise information, date, position, and time.
• Temperature values are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating systematic analysis.

Limitations

• The MBT instrument's maximum depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the ocean's upper layers only.
• Key quantitative details are unknown, including row count, specific column names, and dataset size.
• The temporal coverage is very limited, spanning only six days in 1970.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally from NODC.

Collection Method

Collected via Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during a research cruise.

Time Range

1970-06-26 to 1970-07-01

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:13:37.454107

Geography

North Pacific Ocean (specific positions reported per observation).