USS LAWS Bathythermograph Data from Pacific Ocean Surveys (1952-1959)

Approximately 285 meters is the maximum depth of temperature-depth profiles recorded by the USS LAWS using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument. The dataset contains oceanographic observations from multiple regions, including the Coastal Waters of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, the East China Sea, and the Philippine Sea. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format, with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical thermal structure of the upper ocean (285m max) using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying spatio-temporal patterns of sea surface temperature by region using cruise, date, position, and time columns.
• Calibrating or validating ocean model hindcasts for the 1950s in the North Pacific, Philippine Sea, and Tasman Sea.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural consistency.
• The time range is precisely documented across seven years from 1952-06-23 to 1959-08-24.
• Spatial coverage is specific, listing multiple ocean basins and coastal regions.

Limitations

• Key quantitative details like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• The instrument's maximum depth of ~285m limits analysis to the upper ocean layers only.
• A conflict exists in 'last updated' metadata between platforms (2026-04-01 on datagov vs. 1959-08-24 on nasa_earthdata).

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), from USS LAWS surveys.

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1952-06-23 to 1959-08-24

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:21:31.873827

Geography

Coastal Waters of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, East China Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, South Pacific Ocean, Tasman Sea