Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from R/V Chicago

Temperature-depth profiles collected by the mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) aboard the R/V Chicago in the North Pacific Ocean during summer 1965. Data is processed into the NODC C128 standard format, providing pairs of temperature and depth values at uniform 5-meter intervals. The dataset originates from NOAA NCEI and represents a historical snapshot of upper ocean thermal structure.

Use Cases

• Analyzing seasonal thermal structure of the North Pacific upper ocean using temperature-depth pairs.
• Calibrating or validating ocean model simulations for the 1965 time period with precise location and time data.
• Studying instrument characteristics and data consistency from the mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) era.

Strengths

• Data adheres to a standardized format (NODC C128) ensuring consistent structure for temperature-depth pairs.
• Provides precise temporal coverage for a specific summer cruise from June to September 1965.
• Includes core metadata for each observation: cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Key technical details are missing: total row count, column names, and exact file size are unknown.
• Instrument limitation restricts observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, capturing only the upper ocean.
• Platforms conflict on the 'last updated' date: datagov lists 2026-03 06, while nasa_earthdata lists the original collection end date of 1965-09-01.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Collected using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed to the NODC C128 standard format.

Time Range

1965-06-01 to 1965-09-01

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:17:06.892355

Geography

North Pacific Ocean, from the R/V Chicago.