Historical Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from the HUGH M. SMITH

285-meter temperature-depth profiles from the mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) aboard the HUGH M. SMITH during a 1950 Pacific Ocean cruise. The data, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the C128 standard format, consists of pairs of temperature and depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals. It captures the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers across the North and South Pacific over a seven-week period.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal gradient in the upper ocean using paired temperature-depth columns.
• Studying spatial and temporal variability of sea surface temperatures and subsurface warmth during the 1950 cruise period.
• Providing historical baseline data for climate change studies on ocean heat content in the Pacific.
• Examining the precision of mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments with its standardized 5-meter depth interval recordings.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring consistent structure for analysis.
• Profiles have a defined maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters, clarifying the dataset's scope.
• Temporal coverage is precisely documented from 1950-06-17 to 1950-08-05.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, specific column names, and license are unavailable from all sources.
• The MBT instrument's maximum depth of ~285m limits analysis to the upper ocean only.
• Cross-platform metadata shows a conflict: the last updated date is reported as 2026-03-05 on Data.gov but 1950-08 05 on NASA EarthData.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originating from the HUGH M. SMITH cruise.

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) casts, processed and formatted by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC).

Time Range

1950-06-17 to 1950-08-05

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:42:46.238938

Geography

North Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean