Caribbean Sea Temperature-Depth Profiles from HIDALGO Cruise

May 20 to June 7, 1961, this dataset contains temperature-depth profile data collected using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) during the HIDALGO cruise in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. It was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format, providing pairs of temperature and depth values at uniform 5-meter intervals up to approximately 285 meters. The data documents the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers for this specific cruise.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean (using temperature-depth value pairs).
• Studying historical oceanographic conditions in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico (using date, position, and time fields).
• Validating or calibrating ocean model outputs for the 1961 time period (using standardized temperature profiles).

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized format (NODC C128), ensuring consistency.
• Provides specific temporal coverage from a known research cruise (May 20 to June 7, 1961).
• Records data at uniform depth intervals (5 meters), facilitating analysis.

Limitations

• Maximum observation depth is limited to approximately 285 meters, restricting analysis to the upper ocean.
• Specific column names, row counts, and file size are not provided by any source.
• Data is from a single, short cruise in 1961, limiting spatial and temporal generalizability.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Collection Method

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

Time Range

1961-05-20 to 1961-06-07

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:54:57.405635

Geography

Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.