North Atlantic Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from R/V GERDA 1959

November 1959 data contains temperature-depth profile pairs collected by a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) from the R/V GERDA in the North Atlantic Ocean. The dataset, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the C128 standard format, captures the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters. It is published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical temperature gradients in the upper ocean at 5-meter depth intervals.
• Studying short-term thermal variability in a specific North Atlantic region over a three-day period.
• Validating or calibrating models of historical ocean surface layer heat content.
• Correlating cruise metadata (date, position, time) with observed temperature-depth pairs.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring a consistent structure for profile data.
• Provides precise temporal coverage for a focused three-day research cruise from November 16-18, 1959.
• Records temperature at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating systematic analysis of the water column.

Limitations

• Key technical specifications are unknown, including row count, file size, and exact column names.
• Conflicting 'last updated' metadata exists between platforms (2026-04-01 on Data.gov vs. 1959-11-18 on NASA Earthdata).
• Instrument limitation restricts observations to the upper ~285 meters of the ocean, excluding deeper thermal structure.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from R/V GERDA and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1959-11 16 to 1959-11-18

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:20:34.218315

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean