FURMAN Expedition Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1967

Temperature-depth profiles from the mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument deployed during the FURMAN cruise in the North Pacific Ocean. The dataset contains pairs of temperature-depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, covering the period from October 21 to November 18, 1967. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean (0-285m) using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying short-term ocean temperature variability during a specific cruise using date, time, and position columns.
• Investigating historical oceanographic conditions in the North Pacific for climate model validation.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring a consistent structure for temperature-depth profiles.
• Provides a focused temporal snapshot with a clear 29-day observation period from a single research vessel.
• Records temperature at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating direct vertical comparisons.

Limitations

• Limited to the upper ocean (max ~285m depth), excluding deeper thermal processes.
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from the sources.
• The dataset's age (1967) may limit direct comparison with modern high-resolution sensor data.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during the FURMAN cruise and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1967-10 21 to 1967-11-18

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:27:53.271227

Geography

North Pacific Ocean