Historical Bathythermograph Data from COSSACK Voyages 1955-1959

7600603 NCEI accession contains mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data from the USS COSSACK, capturing temperature-depth profiles in the upper ocean layers. The dataset spans over four years, from February 1955 to May 1959, covering the East China Sea, Great Australian Bight, Philippine Sea, and South China Sea. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical sea surface and subsurface temperature trends in the western Pacific region.
• Studying the thermal structure and seasonal variability of the ocean's upper mixed layer using 5-meter interval profiles.
• Validating or calibrating ocean model hindcasts for the 1950s using in-situ temperature-depth observations.
• Mapping cruise tracks and spatial coverage of mid-20th century oceanographic surveys in the East and South China Seas.

Strengths

• Data provides consistent, standardized temperature-depth pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals.
• Coverage spans a multi-year period (1955-1959) across four distinct oceanographic regions.
• Cruise metadata, including date, position, and time, is reported for each observation.

Limitations

• The maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters limits analysis to the ocean's upper layers only.
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from the provided sources.
• A conflict exists on the 'last updated' date between platforms (2026-03 06 vs. 1959-05-25).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Temperature-depth profiles obtained using the mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by NODC to the C128 format.

Time Range

1955-02-23 to 1959-05-25

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:08:49.202163

Geography

East China Sea, Great Australian Bight, Philippine Sea, South China Sea