Historical Bathythermograph Data from CORMORANT Ship

285 meters is the maximum depth of temperature-depth profiles collected by the mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument aboard the CORMORANT. The dataset contains observations from the East China Sea, Japan Sea, and South China Sea between February 1958 and January 1961, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format. Each record includes cruise information, date, position, time, and paired temperature-depth values at uniform 5-meter intervals.

Use Cases

• Analyzing seasonal and interannual temperature variability in the upper 285 meters of the East China Sea.
• Mapping historical thermal structure using latitude, longitude, and temperature-depth profile pairs.
• Validating ocean model simulations of the upper ocean using cruise information, date, and position data.
• Studying the vertical temperature gradient in the South China Sea from data recorded at 5-meter depth intervals.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized NODC format (C128), ensuring consistency.
• Covers a multi-year time range from 1958-02-11 to 1961-01-23 across three distinct sea regions.
• Provides detailed metadata for each observation, including cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Key technical specifications like row count, file size, and column names are unavailable from all sources.
• The MBT instrument's maximum depth of ~285m limits analysis to the upper ocean layers only.
• Conflicting 'last updated' metadata exists between platforms (2026 vs. 1961), casting doubt on provenance maintenance.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument aboard the CORMORANT ship and processed to NODC standard C128 format.

Time Range

1958-02-11 to 1961-01-23

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:28:27.743270

Geography

East China Sea, Japan Sea, South China Sea