Historical Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from HMNZS Waikato
Updated 3mo ago
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Description
6900031 NCEI Accession contains mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data collected by HMNZS Waikato across the Arabian Sea, Coral Sea, Laccadive Sea, and Tasman Sea. The dataset, processed by the NODC into the standard C128 format, provides temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters. It captures the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers during a specific 12-month period.
Use Cases
Analyzing seasonal thermal structure changes in the upper 285 meters of specified seas.
Validating or calibrating historical ocean temperature models for the late 1960s.
Studying spatial temperature gradients across the Arabian, Coral, Laccadive, and Tasman Seas.
Correlating cruise-specific metadata (date, position, time) with observed temperature-depth profiles.
Strengths
Data is processed to a known standard (NODC C128 format) ensuring consistent structure.
Temperature observations are recorded at a uniform 5-meter depth interval, facilitating systematic analysis.
Covers a specific 12-month time range (1967-11-01 to 1968-10-12) from a single research vessel.
Limitations
Key structural details are unknown, including the exact column names and the total number of rows or observations.
The maximum observation depth of ~285m limits utility to studies of the ocean's upper thermal layer only.
A conflict exists in the 'last updated' metadata, with one source listing 2026-03 05 and another listing the original collection end date of 1968-10-12.
Provenance
Source
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce via NODC/NCEI.
Collection Method
Collected using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from HMNZS Waikato and processed to NODC standard C128 format.