Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from the J. JONES Vessel

Bathythermograph (MBT) data from the vessel J. JONES in the North Pacific Ocean on September 12, 1945. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format. It provides a single-day snapshot of the upper ocean's thermal structure.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical temperature structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) at a specific location and time.
• Studying historical oceanographic conditions for climate change baseline comparisons.
• Validating or calibrating models of upper ocean thermal dynamics using point-in-time measurements.
• Examining data collection and standardization methods for early mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural consistency.
• Provides precise geospatial and temporal context with recorded cruise information, date, position, and time for each observation.
• Temperature values are recorded at a uniform 5-meter depth interval, facilitating systematic analysis.

Limitations

• The dataset is limited to a single day (1945-09-12), offering no temporal series for trend analysis.
• Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) observations have a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, restricting analysis to the ocean's upper layers.
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and license information are not provided across any source.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce; data collected from vessel J. JONES.

Collection Method

Temperature-depth profiles obtained using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1945-09 12 to 1945-09-12

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:25:13.306094

Geography

North Pacific Ocean