FREMONT Bathythermograph Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1944

July to September 1944 temperature-depth profiles collected by the vessel FREMONT in the North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, Solomon Sea, and South Pacific Ocean. Data was gathered using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the standard C128 format. The dataset provides a historical snapshot of upper ocean thermal structure during this specific cruise.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (down to ~285 m) using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying spatial temperature variations across the North Pacific, Philippine Sea, Solomon Sea, and South Pacific Ocean.
• Investigating temporal changes in near-surface ocean conditions during the July-September 1944 period.
• Using cruise information, date, position, and time metadata to contextualize historical oceanographic observations.

Strengths

• Data is standardized in the NODC C128 format, ensuring consistency for analysis.
• Provides a focused temporal snapshot from a specific 1944 cruise (1944-07-07 to 1944-09-27).
• Covers a wide geographical area across multiple Pacific Ocean regions.

Limitations

• Key technical specifications are unknown, including row count, file size, and specific column names.
• The MBT instrument's maximum depth of approximately 285 meters limits analysis to the upper ocean layers only.
• Data freshness is unclear; the last metadata update is listed as 2026-03-05, which seems improbable and conflicts with the 1944 collection date.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from the vessel FREMONT and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1944-07-07 to 1944-09-27

Freshness

2026-03-05

Geography

North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, Solomon Sea, South Pacific Ocean