Historical Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from the North Pacific

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the USS Currier's 1958 cruise in the North Pacific Ocean. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, processed into the NODC C128 standard format. It was collected by the U.S. Navy and processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to 285m) for a specific time period.
• Studying spatial and temporal temperature variations in the North Pacific using cruise, date, position, and time metadata.
• Serving as a baseline for comparing historical and modern upper-ocean heat content.
• Calibrating or validating ocean models that simulate mid-20th century conditions.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring a consistent structure for temperature-depth pairs.
• Provides a focused temporal snapshot from July to October 1958, useful for seasonal studies.
• Records measurements at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating straightforward vertical analysis.

Limitations

• Maximum observation depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the upper ocean layers only.
• Key metadata such as exact row count, column names, and license are unavailable across all sources.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce (via NODC/NCEI).

Collection Method

Collected using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from the USS Currier.

Time Range

1958-07-21 to 1958-10-08

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:50:00.207576

Geography

North Pacific Ocean