HMAS Duchess Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1965-1967
Updated 2mo ago
13files
Available on 2 platforms
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Description
Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data collected by the HMAS Duchess across the Indian Ocean, Solomon Sea, South China Sea, and Tasman Sea. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format. Observations span from August 12, 1965, to June 6, 1967.
Use Cases
Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (top 285m) using paired temperature-depth values.
Studying spatial temperature variations across the Indian Ocean, Solomon Sea, South China Sea, and Tasman Sea.
Investigating seasonal or interannual temperature changes from 1965 to 1967 using date and time stamps.
Correlating ocean surface layer conditions with cruise information and positional data.
Providing a historical baseline for comparison with modern ocean temperature datasets.
Strengths
Data is processed to a known, documented standard (NODC C128 format).
Provides consistent vertical resolution with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.
Covers a specific, multi-year time period (1965-08-12 to 1967-06 06) across multiple ocean basins.
Cross-platform presence (Data.gov, NASA Earthdata) indicates recognized archival importance.
Limitations
Key metadata such as row count, file size, column names, and license are unavailable from all sources.
Instrument limitation restricts observations to the upper ocean layers only (max depth ~285m).
Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between platforms (2026-04-01 on Data.gov vs. 1967-06-06 on NASA Earthdata).
Provenance
Source
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally from HMAS Duchess.
Collection Method
Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC.
Time Range
1965-08-12 to 1967-06-06
Freshness
2026-04-01 15:04:09.851512
Geography
Indian Ocean, Solomon Sea, South China Sea, Tasman Sea
The dataset's license information is not provided. The conflicting 'last updated' metadata suggests potential discrepancies in platform record-keeping.