Mechanical Bathythermograph Data from Cayuse Cruise

Two days of ocean temperature-depth profiles from the Cayuse cruise in the North Pacific Ocean, collected on September 23-24, 1971. The dataset contains pairs of temperature and depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format. It specifically captures the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers, with a maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical temperature profile of the upper ocean on specific dates.
• Studying short-term thermal variability in the North Pacific Ocean.
• Calibrating or validating models of upper ocean heat content using historical in-situ data.
• Investigating the methodology and data format of historical mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) observations.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known, documented standard format (NODC C128).
• Provides precise temporal (1971-09-23 to 1971-09-24) and spatial (North Pacific Ocean) coverage.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at a consistent, uniform depth interval of 5 meters.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• The dataset's utility is limited to the upper ocean, with a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Conflicting last-update dates exist between platforms (2026-03-05 on Data.gov vs. 1971-09-24 on NASA EarthData).

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally from the Cayuse cruise.

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1971-09-23 to 1971-09-24

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:49:31.771500

Geography

North Pacific Ocean