Historical Gulf of Mexico Temperature Profiles from the HIDALGO Cruise

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the 1961 HIDALGO cruise in the Gulf of Mexico provides temperature-depth profiles for the ocean's upper layers. The dataset, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the standard C128 format, contains observations from July 17 to August 2, 1961. It is managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying historical ocean conditions in the Gulf of Mexico using cruise date, position, and time metadata.
• Comparing temperature profiles recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known, documented standard format (NODC C128).
• Provides a specific temporal snapshot from a 17-day cruise in 1961.
• Includes core metadata for each observation: cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• The dataset is limited to the upper ocean, with a maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Key technical details like row count, column names, and file size are unavailable across all sources.
• The last update date conflicts between platforms (2026-04-01 on data.gov vs. 1961-08-02 on NASA Earthdata).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1961-07 17 to 1961-08-02

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:08:42.823879

Geography

Gulf of Mexico