Historical Pacific Ocean Temperature Profiles from the JOHN R. MANNING

North Pacific and South Pacific Ocean temperature-depth profiles collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) aboard the JOHN R. MANNING from January to March 1953. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the standard C128 format, containing pairs of temperature and depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals. This dataset provides a snapshot of upper ocean thermal conditions during a specific mid-20th century research cruise.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to 285m) using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying spatial temperature variations across the North and South Pacific during the cruise period using reported position data.
• Investigating diurnal or short-term thermal changes using cruise date and time annotations for each observation.
• Creating baseline comparisons for modern upper ocean temperature studies in the Pacific region.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized format (NODC C128), ensuring consistent structure for temperature-depth pairs.
• Provides a focused temporal snapshot from a specific research vessel over a nearly two-month period (1953-01 23 to 1953-03-19).
• Records observations at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating consistent vertical analysis.

Limitations

• Instrument limitation restricts observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, capturing only the upper ocean layer.
• Cross-platform metadata conflicts: 'last updated' date differs significantly between Data.gov (2026) and NASA Earthdata (1953).
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, specific column names, and license information are unavailable across all sources.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Temperature-depth profiles gathered using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during a research cruise.

Time Range

1953-01-23 to 1953-03-19

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:59:27.170076

Geography

North Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean