FORSTER MBT Temperature-Depth Profiles from 1963 South Pacific

NODC-processed mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data from the FORSTER research vessel provides temperature-depth profile pairs at uniform 5-meter intervals. The dataset covers the South Pacific Ocean, Southern Ocean, and Tasman Sea during a cruise from January 19 to March 3, 1963. Observations are formatted to the NODC standard C128 format, reporting cruise information, date, position, and time for each profile.

Use Cases

• Analyzing upper ocean thermal stratification using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying historical sea surface temperature variability in the South Pacific and Tasman Sea.
• Validating ocean model outputs for the upper 285 meters using cruise-positioned profile data.
• Researching seasonal ocean heat content changes in the Southern Ocean from the early 1960s.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized NODC format (C128), ensuring consistent structure.
• Profiles provide uniform temperature measurements at 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating comparative analysis.
• Dataset captures a specific 44-day cruise in 1963, offering a focused temporal snapshot.

Limitations

• Maximum observation depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the upper ocean only.
• Key metadata such as exact row count, column names, and license are unavailable across all sources.
• The NASA Earthdata platform provides no descriptive information, creating an information gap.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC to the C128 format.

Time Range

1963-01-19 to 1963-03-03

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:43:21.607588

Geography

South Pacific Ocean, Southern Ocean, Tasman Sea