Philippine Sea Bathythermograph Temperature Profiles from USS Chicago

Bathythermograph (MBT) data from the USS Chicago in the Philippine Sea during August 1966. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying historical ocean conditions in the Philippine Sea during August 1966.
• Validating oceanographic models with in-situ temperature profile data.
• Investigating short-term temperature variations using cruise date, position, and time metadata.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized NODC format (C128), ensuring consistency.
• Provides specific temporal coverage from a single cruise (1966-08-02 to 1966-08-27).
• Temperature measurements are recorded at a uniform, fine resolution (5 m depth intervals).

Limitations

• Key technical details are missing, including row count, column names, and file size.
• The MBT instrument limits observations to the upper ocean layers (max ~285 m depth).
• Conflicting metadata exists for last updated date (2026-03-05 vs. 1966-08-27).

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Collection Method

Collected via Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from the USS Chicago.

Time Range

1966-08-02 to 1966-08-27

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:01:22.146682

Geography

Philippine Sea.