Historical Pacific Ocean Temperature Profiles from FRYBARGER

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the FRYBARGER vessel provides temperature-depth profiles for the upper ocean layers across six Pacific regions. The dataset covers an eight-year period from 1945 to 1953, processed into the NODC standard C128 format. Data originates from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyzing thermal structure changes in the upper ocean layers using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying regional oceanographic variability across the Bismarck, Philippine, and South China Seas.
• Calibrating or validating historical ocean model simulations with observed cruise, date, position, and time data.
• Investigating post-World War II ocean conditions in the Pacific using uniformly recorded 5-meter interval profiles.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural consistency.
• Covers a multi-year time range (1945-1953) across six distinct Pacific Ocean regions.
• Provides specific instrument context, noting the Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) has a maximum observation depth of ~285 meters.

Limitations

• Key quantitative details like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• Data is limited to the ocean's upper thermal structure due to the instrument's maximum depth capability.
• Platforms provide conflicting 'last updated' metadata (2026 vs. 1953), creating uncertainty about curation date.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Observations gathered using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from the FRYBARGER vessel and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1945-01-02 to 1953-04-13

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:06:44.467893

Geography

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