Bathythermograph Data from J. E. PILLSBURY Cruise in 1960

Temperature-depth profiles from the mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument collected aboard the J. E. PILLSBURY research vessel. The dataset covers a one-month cruise in the North Atlantic Ocean during January and February 1960. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean up to 285 meters depth using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying temporal and spatial variability of sea surface temperature and mixed layer depth during the winter period.
• Calibrating or validating ocean model outputs for the North Atlantic region using historical in-situ measurements.
• Investigating cruise-based oceanographic data collection methods and the C128 data format standard.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring consistency for analysis.
• Temporal resolution is high, with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.
• Provides precise cruise metadata including date, position, and time for each observation.

Limitations

• The maximum observation depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the upper ocean only.
• Key metadata such as exact row count, column names, and license information are unavailable across all sources.
• Data freshness is poor, with the most recent platform update referencing 2026, but the underlying data is from 1960.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), via the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC).

Collection Method

Collected using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during a research cruise and processed to a standard format.

Time Range

1960-01-15 to 1960-02-12

Freshness

Most recent platform update was 2026-03-05 on Data.gov, but the underlying data collection ended on 1960-02-12.

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean (specific cruise track of the J. E. PILLSBURY vessel).