North Atlantic Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1964

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the COMET cruise in the North Atlantic Ocean, spanning January to March 1964. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the standard C128 format. It captures the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical temperature structure of the upper ocean up to 285m depth.
• Studying seasonal thermal changes in the North Atlantic during early 1964.
• Correlating cruise position and time data with specific temperature-depth observations.
• Validating or supplementing historical oceanographic models for the region.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128) ensuring consistency.
• Provides a focused temporal snapshot from a specific cruise over 74 days in 1964.
• Records temperature at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, enabling straightforward profile analysis.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and exact file size are unavailable from all sources.
• Instrument limitation restricts observations to a maximum depth of ~285m, excluding deeper ocean layers.
• The dataset's age may present challenges for direct comparison with modern, higher-resolution instruments.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originating from the COMET cruise.

Collection Method

Collected via Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1964-01 13 to 1964-03-26

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:47:44.801507

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean