Historical Bathythermograph Data from the Pacific Ocean in 1944

Bathythermograph (MBT) data from the LYMAN vessel in the Bismarck Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, Solomon Sea, and South Pacific Ocean. The dataset contains temperature-depth profiles from 1944, processed by the NODC into its standard C128 format. It provides a historical snapshot of upper-ocean thermal structure during a specific period of World War II.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical sea surface temperature and upper-ocean thermal stratification using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying spatial oceanographic variability across the Bismarck, Philippine, and Solomon Seas using position and time data.
• Investigating seasonal changes in the upper 285 meters of the ocean from March to November 1944 using date and cruise information.
• Calibrating or validating historical ocean model reanalyses with in-situ temperature profile observations.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring a consistent structure.
• Provides a specific temporal snapshot with a clear 8-month time range from March to November 1944.
• Contains geographically specific observations from multiple Pacific Ocean seas.

Limitations

• The maximum observation depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the ocean's upper layers.
• Critical metadata is missing or conflicting: row count, column names, license, and exact authorship are unknown.
• The last update date conflicts between platforms (1944 vs. 2026), creating uncertainty about maintenance.

Provenance

Source

NOAA_NCEI (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Centers for Environmental Information).

Collection Method

Temperature-depth profiles gathered using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from the vessel LYMAN.

Time Range

1944-03-14 to 1944-11-16

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:26:19.702988

Geography

Bismarck Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, Solomon Sea, South Pacific Ocean