North Atlantic Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1970 Cruise

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the R/V Forster's 1970 cruise in the North Atlantic Ocean provides temperature-depth profiles at uniform 5-meter intervals down to approximately 285 meters. The dataset contains paired temperature-depth values for each observation, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the standard C128 format. It captures the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layer over a one-month period from March 20 to April 21, 1970.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean using paired temperature-depth columns.
• Studying seasonal transition in the North Atlantic using cruise date and position data from March-April 1970.
• Calibrating historical ocean models with precisely measured temperature profiles recorded at 5-meter intervals.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized format (NODC C128) ensuring consistency.
• Temporal and spatial context is provided for each observation, including cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• The maximum depth of observations is only 285 meters, limiting analysis to the ocean's upper layer.
• Key metadata such as exact row count, column names, and license information are unavailable across all sources.
• A conflict exists in 'last updated' dates between platforms (2026-03-05 on Data.gov vs. 1970-04-21 on NASA Earthdata).

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during a research cruise.

Time Range

1970-03-20 to 1970-04-21

Freshness

2026-03-05

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean.