USS Eversole Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data from the USS Eversole captures temperature-depth profiles of the ocean's upper layers. The dataset spans over a decade from 1948 to 1961, covering major ocean basins including the East China Sea, Indian Ocean, and North Pacific. It was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical sea surface temperature and upper ocean thermal structure using temperature-depth value pairs.
• Studying spatial and temporal variability of ocean heat content in the post-WWII era across the reported cruise positions.
• Calibrating or validating climate models with in-situ temperature observations recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.
• Investigating naval survey patterns and data collection methods from the late 1940s to early 1960s using cruise information, date, position, and time fields.

Strengths

• Provides a consistent 13-year time series (1948-1961) of ocean observations, offering a long-term view of post-war conditions.
• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring a uniform structure with temperature recorded at consistent 5 m depth intervals.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA EarthData signals its importance and curation as a foundational historical dataset.

Limitations

• The MBT instrument's maximum depth of approximately 285 meters limits analysis to the upper ocean layers only.
• Specific row counts, column names, and dataset size are unavailable across all sources, hindering precise assessment of data volume.
• Conflicting 'last updated' metadata exists between platforms (2026 on Data.gov vs. 1961 on NASA EarthData), creating uncertainty about recent modifications.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally from USS Eversole naval surveys.

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments during ship cruises and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1948-09-01 to 1961-05-17

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:43:43.247908

Geography

East China Sea, Indian Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, South China Sea, South Pacific Ocean.