Historical Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from the Indian Ocean

285 meters is the maximum depth for temperature observations in this dataset, which captures the thermal structure of the upper ocean layers. The data consists of temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals from a 1968 cruise by J. R. PERRY across the Indian Ocean, Laccadive Sea, and Red Sea. It has been processed and standardized by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean up to 285 meters depth using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying spatial temperature variations across the Indian Ocean, Laccadive Sea, and Red Sea for a specific time period.
• Investigating historical ocean conditions by leveraging standardized cruise information, date, position, and time for each profile.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural consistency.
• Provides specific temporal coverage from 1968-07-04 to 1968 07-30 for a focused historical analysis.
• Contains detailed metadata per observation, including cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Key quantitative details like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• The mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument limits observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, excluding deeper ocean layers.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date, with one platform listing 2026-04-01 and another listing the original data end date of 1968-07-30.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originating from a cruise by J. R. PERRY.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

1968-07-04 to 1968-07-30

Freshness

2026-04 01 15:21:11.778720

Geography

Indian Ocean, Laccadive Sea, and Red Sea