Historical Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from LLANDAFF Cruise

Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, Laccadive Sea, and South China Sea temperature-depth profiles collected from the vessel LLANDAFF between January 14 and February 28, 1960. The dataset contains mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) observations processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format. Each profile provides paired temperature and depth measurements at uniform 5-meter intervals, useful for analyzing the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying historical oceanographic conditions during a specific cruise (LLANDAFF) in early 1960.
• Investigating spatial temperature gradients across the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, Laccadive Sea, and South China Sea.
• Calibrating or validating models of upper ocean heat content for a specific time period.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known, documented standard (NODC C128 format).
• Provides precise temporal coverage for a 46-day period from 1960-01-14 to 1960-02-28.
• Includes key metadata for each observation: cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Key technical details are missing: exact row count, file size, and specific column names are unknown.
• Instrument limitation: Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) data is only useful for the upper ocean, with a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Platforms disagree on the last updated date: Data.gov lists 2026-03 05, while NASA Earthdata lists the original collection end date of 1960-02-28.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), Accession 7501159.

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC.

Time Range

1960-01-14 to 1960-02-28

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:53:14.680447

Geography

Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, Laccadive Sea, South China Sea