Historical Bathythermograph Temperature Profiles from the Western Pacific

Temperature-depth profiles from the mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument collected during the D. C. BARNES cruise across the Bismarck Sea, Coral Sea, and other western Pacific regions. The dataset contains observations from October 1944 to February 1945, 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.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) in the western Pacific during WWII-era.
• Studying temporal changes in sea surface and subsurface temperatures from historical cruise data.
• Validating or supplementing ocean model reconstructions for the mid-1940s using precise location and time data.
• Examining temperature gradients at uniform 5-meter depth intervals for specific geographical regions like the Solomon Sea.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known, documented standard (NODC C128 format) ensuring consistency.
• Provides precise spatial and temporal context with reported cruise information, date, position, and time for each observation.
• Contains a focused time series of observations over a four-month period in a specific operational region.

Limitations

• Instrument limitation: MBT data is only useful for the upper ocean, with a maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Critical metadata conflicts: Row count, file size, column names, and license are reported as unknown or None across all platforms.
• The dataset's age (1944-1945) may limit direct comparability with modern sensor data without careful calibration.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), from the D. C. BARNES cruise.

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements, post-processed by NODC.

Time Range

1944-10-28 to 1945-02-25

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:00:36.896143

Geography

Bismarck Sea, Coral Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, Solomon Sea, South Pacific Ocean