Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from HIDALGO Cruise

Temperature-depth profiles were collected by the research vessel HIDALGO using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument. The dataset covers a cruise in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico during October and November 1961. Data was processed and standardized into the NODC C128 format by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to 285m) using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying spatial and temporal ocean temperature patterns during a specific 1961 cruise.
• Validating or calibrating ocean model simulations for the Caribbean Sea region.
• Investigating historical baseline conditions for climate change studies in tropical Atlantic waters.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized format (NODC C128), ensuring consistency.
• Provides precise temporal (1961-10 19 to 1961-11-06) and geographic (Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico) context for each observation.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating analysis.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, column names, file size, and license are unavailable across all sources.
• The MBT instrument's maximum depth of ~285 meters limits analysis to the ocean's upper layers only.
• The last updated date conflicts between platforms (1961 vs. 2026), indicating potential metadata inconsistency.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during the HIDALGO cruise, processed by NODC.

Time Range

1961-10-19 to 1961-11-06

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:30:22.468739

Geography

Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico