Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from the J.K. Taussig

Temperature-depth profiles from the U.S. Navy vessel J.K. Taussig, collected using Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instruments across 12 ocean basins from 1944 to 1961. The data has been processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format. Each observation includes cruise metadata, position, and time, with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals up to approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing post-World War II upper-ocean temperature trends in the Pacific and Atlantic basins.
• Calibrating or validating ocean model hindcasts for the mid-20th century using historical in-situ data.
• Studying the spatial distribution of thermal layers using the reported latitude, longitude, and depth-paired temperature values.
• Investigating seasonal or interannual variability within specific seas like the East China Sea or Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Strengths

• Covers a 17-year time range (1944-09-05 to 1961-09-16) providing a long-term historical record.
• Spatial coverage includes 12 distinct ocean basins, from the North Atlantic to the Solomon Sea.
• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring consistent structure with reported cruise, date, position, and time for each profile.
• Measurements are recorded at a consistent 5-meter depth interval, facilitating uniform analysis.

Limitations

• Instrument maximum depth is ~285m, limiting analysis to the upper ocean only.
• Exact row count, file size, and complete column list are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date: one platform lists 2026-03-05 (metadata update), while another lists 1961-09-16 (data collection end).

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally from NODC.

Collection Method

Collected via Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instruments from the U.S. Navy vessel J.K. Taussig and processed to a standard format.

Time Range

1944-09 05 to 1961-09-16

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:59:23.679714

Geography

Bismarck Sea, Coral Sea, East China Sea, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Japan Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, Solomon Sea, South China Sea, South Pacific Ocean, Yellow Sea.