Historical Bathythermograph Profiles from HMS Loch Fada 1955-1961
Updated 2mo ago
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Available on 2 platforms
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Description
NOAA_NCEI provides bathythermograph (MBT) data collected by HMS Loch Fada across multiple seas and oceans. The dataset contains temperature-depth profiles for the upper ocean layers, recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals up to approximately 285 meters. Observations span from October 1955 to March 1961 in regions including the Alboran Sea, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and North Atlantic Ocean.
Use Cases
Analyzing historical sea surface temperature and upper ocean heat content using temperature-depth pairs.
Studying seasonal or interannual thermal variability in specific regions like the Gulf of Aden or Red Sea.
Validating or calibrating ocean model reconstructions for the 1950s-1960s using precise cruise, date, position, and time metadata.
Investigating the spatial distribution of near-surface ocean temperatures across transition zones like the Strait of Hormuz.
Strengths
Data is processed to a standardized format (NODC C128), ensuring consistent structure.
Provides a multi-year time series from 1955 to 1961 across 12 distinct oceanic regions.
Includes precise metadata for each observation: cruise information, date, position, and time.
Limitations
The maximum observation depth is ~285 meters, limiting analysis to the upper ocean layers.
Specific column names, row counts, and dataset size are not provided by any source.
Data freshness is unclear; the last metadata update is listed as 2026, but the collection ended in 1961.
Provenance
Source
NOAA_NCEI (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Centers for Environmental Information).
Collection Method
Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC to the C128 standard format.
Time Range
1955 10 13 to 1961 03 16
Freshness
Most recent metadata update is listed as 2026 04 01, but the underlying data collection ended on 1961 03 16.
Geography
Alboran Sea, Arabian Sea, English Channel, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Red Sea.
License information is not specified across any platform. The dataset is exclusively useful for studying the upper ocean thermal structure due to instrument depth limitations.