Historical Gulf of Mexico Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles

Temperature-depth profile data collected from the R/V Hidalgo in the Gulf of Mexico using mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments. The dataset contains observations from a three-day cruise in November 1961, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format. It captures the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean using paired temperature-depth values recorded at 5-meter intervals.
• Studying historical ocean conditions in the Gulf of Mexico using cruise information, date, position, and time metadata.
• Calibrating or validating ocean model simulations of the upper ocean's thermal layers with in-situ profile data.
• Investigating short-term (multi-day) temperature variability at specific locations from the reported time-series observations.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a documented standard format (NODC C128), ensuring consistency.
• Provides precise spatial and temporal context with reported cruise information, date, position, and time for each observation.
• Captures a focused time series over three consecutive days in November 1961, allowing for analysis of short-term variability.

Limitations

• Instrument limitation restricts data to the upper ocean only, with a maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Key quantitative metrics like total row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• License and authorship information is not provided, limiting clarity on reuse terms and original data collection details.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally from R/V Hidalgo cruise.

Collection Method

Collected using mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1961-11-11 to 1961-11-13

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:16:40.460541

Geography

Gulf of Mexico