Historical Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from HMS Lagos

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data collected by HMS Lagos across multiple ocean basins from June 1959 to March 1960. The dataset provides standardized temperature-depth profile pairs at 5-meter intervals, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the C128 format. It captures the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical temperature gradients in the upper ocean using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying seasonal or regional thermal variability across the Great Australian Bight, Gulf of Guinea, and other listed seas.
• Correlating cruise information, date, position, and time with observed temperature profiles for spatiotemporal analysis.
• Investigating the limitations of mechanical bathythermograph technology for upper-layer oceanography.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring consistency for analysis.
• Profiles provide uniform temperature measurements at 5-meter depth intervals.
• Covers a specific 9-month time range (1959-06 23 to 1960-03-10) across six distinct ocean regions.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and exact file size are unavailable from all sources.
• Instrument limitation restricts observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, capturing only the upper ocean.
• Conflict in 'last updated' metadata: Data.gov lists 2026-04-01, while NASA Earthdata lists the collection end date of 1960-03-10.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

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

Time Range

1959-06-23 to 1960-03-10

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:07:26.881985

Geography

Great Australian Bight, Gulf of Guinea, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea