Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from the North Pacific

Bathythermograph data from the vessel DEFIANCE captures temperature-depth profiles in the North Pacific Ocean during a specific cruise from June 22 to June 29, 1967. The data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format, which records temperature at uniform 5-meter depth intervals up to approximately 285 meters. This dataset provides a snapshot of the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers from a mid-20th-century research mission.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying historical ocean conditions in the North Pacific region during June 1967.
• Investigating cruise-based oceanographic data collection methods, referencing cruise information, date, position, and time columns.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring a consistent structure.
• Provides a focused temporal snapshot from a continuous 8-day cruise in 1967.
• Maximum observation depth and uniform 5-meter sampling interval are documented, clarifying vertical resolution.

Limitations

• The exact number of rows, columns, and total size is unknown across all sources.
• Data is limited to the upper ~285 meters of the ocean, restricting analysis to surface and near-surface layers.
• Sources disagree on last updated date (2026-03-05 on datagov vs. 1967-06-29 on nasa_earthdata).

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from the vessel DEFIANCE and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1967-06-22 to 1967-06-29

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:09:14.334066

Geography

North Pacific Ocean