North Atlantic Ocean Temperature Profiles From J. W. GIBBS Cruise

Temperature-depth profiles from the J. W. GIBBS research vessel in the North Atlantic Ocean cover a period from July 14 to August 9, 1965. The data, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the C128 format, consists of pairs of temperature and depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals. This dataset provides a snapshot of the upper ocean's thermal structure from a specific mid-20th century cruise.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical temperature structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) for a specific time and location.
• Studying seasonal or historical changes in near-surface ocean heat content using standardized NODC C128 format data.
• Validating or calibrating oceanographic models for the North Atlantic region with in-situ temperature profile observations.
• Correlating cruise-based oceanographic measurements (date, position, time) with other historical environmental datasets.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring a consistent structure for analysis.
• Provides precise temporal and spatial context with recorded cruise information, date, position, and time for each observation.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating direct vertical profile comparisons.

Limitations

• The mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument has a maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the upper ocean layers.
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and column names are unavailable from the provided platform descriptions.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between platforms (2026-03-05 on Data.gov and 1965-08-09 on NASA EarthData), creating uncertainty about data currency.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originating from the J. W. GIBBS research cruise.

Collection Method

Collected using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC).

Time Range

1965-07-14 to 1965-08-09

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:43:32.367625

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean