Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from the Arabian Sea

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the 1955 GAMBIA cruise in the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, and Laccadive Sea. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the C128 standard format. It captures the thermal structure of the upper ocean layers during a specific two-month expedition.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper 285 meters of the ocean using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying seasonal or historical ocean temperature changes in the Arabian Sea for a specific time period.
• Validating or calibrating ocean model outputs for the upper ocean layer using in-situ profile data.
• Correlating cruise information, date, position, and time with observed temperature profiles.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural consistency.
• Provides precise temporal coverage from May 29 to July 25, 1955, for a specific research cruise.
• Temperature values are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating systematic analysis.
• Cross-platform presence on government data portals indicates recognized archival importance.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and file size are unavailable from all sources.
• Instrument limitation restricts observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, excluding deeper ocean layers.
• Sources conflict on the 'last updated' date, with one showing 2026 and another showing 1955, creating uncertainty about recent modifications.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during the GAMBIA cruise and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1955-05-29 to 1955-07-25

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:28:29.666852

Geography

Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, and Laccadive Sea