HMAS Diamantina Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles 1961-1968

Coral Sea, Great Australian Bight, and Indian Ocean temperature-depth profiles were collected by HMAS Diamantina using mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments. The dataset contains observations from May 1961 to March 1968, processed into the NODC standard C128 format. Data records pairs of temperature and depth values at uniform 5-meter intervals, focusing on the upper 285 meters of the ocean.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical sea surface temperature trends using the recorded temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying the thermal structure of the upper ocean (to ~285m) for climate model validation.
• Mapping regional oceanographic conditions in the Coral Sea and Indian Ocean via position and time data.
• Investigating seasonal or interannual variability in the Great Australian Bight using the seven-year time series.

Strengths

• Provides a continuous seven-year time series from 1961-05-01 to 1968-03-27.
• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring consistent temperature-depth pair structure.
• Covers three distinct oceanic regions: the Coral Sea, Great Australian Bight, and Indian Ocean.

Limitations

• Maximum observation depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the upper ocean only.
• Cross-source conflict: the 'last updated' metadata differs significantly between platforms (1968-03-27 vs. 2026-04-01).
• Specific column names, row counts, and dataset size are not provided by any source.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments aboard HMAS Diamantina and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1961-05-01 to 1968-03-27

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:11:58.361286

Geography

Coral Sea, Great Australian Bight, Indian Ocean