Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from the North Pacific

Temperature-depth profile data collected using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) from the vessel LANSING in the North Pacific Ocean. The dataset contains pairs of temperature and depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format. Observations were made during a cruise from January 16 to March 2, 1963.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical temperature structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m depth) for a specific cruise.
• Studying seasonal or historical changes in near-surface ocean heat content in the North Pacific.
• Validating or calibrating ocean model simulations for the early 1960s using in-situ profile data.
• Correlating cruise information, date, position, and time with corresponding temperature-depth pairs.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known, documented standard (NODC C128 format).
• Provides consistent vertical resolution with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.
• Contains core metadata for each observation, including cruise, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Limited to the upper ocean, with a maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Specific row count, file size, and column names are not provided by the sources.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between platforms (2026-03-05 on Data.gov vs. 1963-03-02 on NASA Earthdata).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1963-01 16 to 1963-03-02

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:32:27.575456

Geography

North Pacific Ocean