Historical Bathythermograph Temperature Profiles from 1954-1965

Temperature-depth profiles from mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) casts conducted by ten Argentine naval vessels across multiple ocean basins. The dataset contains observations processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the standard C128 format, with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals. Data collection occurred from June 1954 to December 1965, focusing on the upper 285 meters of the ocean.

Use Cases

• Analyzing thermal structure of the upper ocean using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying historical ocean temperature variability across the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic/Pacific/Southern Oceans.
• Correlating cruise information, date, position, and time with observed temperature profiles.

Strengths

• Provides a multi-decade time series from 1954 to 1965.
• Contains data from ten distinct research vessels, offering spatial variety.
• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring consistent structure.
• Profiles have uniform 5-meter depth intervals for comparative analysis.

Limitations

• Maximum observation depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the upper ocean.
• Exact row count, column names, and dataset size are unknown from provided sources.
• The last update date conflicts between platforms (2026-03-05 on Data.gov vs. 1965-12-03 on NASA Earthdata).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument casts processed by NODC to C128 format.

Time Range

1954-06-06 to 1965-12-03

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:43:53.345135

Geography

Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, North Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean, South Pacific Ocean, Southern Ocean