J.R. Perry Ship MBT Temperature-Depth Profiles in the North Atlantic

Temperature-depth profile data collected using mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments aboard the J. R. PERRY vessel in the North Atlantic Ocean. The dataset contains observations from a single cruise spanning November 16 to 29, 1965, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format. It is structured as pairs of temperature-depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, suitable for studying the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying short-term ocean temperature variability in the North Atlantic during November 1965 using cruise date and position data.
• Calibrating or validating historical ocean model reanalyses with in-situ bathythermograph observations.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized NODC format (C128), ensuring consistency for analysis.
• Provides precise temporal (1965-11-16 to 1965-11-29) and spatial (North Atlantic Ocean) context for each profile.
• Observations are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating direct comparison and plotting of profiles.

Limitations

• Maximum observation depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the ocean's upper layers only.
• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and exact data size are unavailable from all sources.
• The dataset represents a very short time period (two weeks) from a single research cruise, limiting long-term or broad spatial analysis.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally from the J. R. PERRY cruise.

Collection Method

Collected using mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1965-11-16 to 1965-11-29

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:22:24.022749

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean