Historical North Atlantic Ocean Temperature Profiles from Malabar

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data contains bathythermograph (MBT) measurements from the Malabar cruise in the North Atlantic Ocean. The dataset provides temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, with a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters. Observations span from January 12, 1953, to February 15, 1955, and have been processed into the NODC standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing upper ocean thermal structure using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying historical ocean conditions in the North Atlantic from cruise, date, position, and time metadata.
• Calibrating or validating models of upper ocean heat content for the 1950s.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a recognized standard format (NODC C128).
• Provides a multi-year time series from 1953 to 1955.
• Measurements are recorded at a consistent 5-meter depth resolution.

Limitations

• Row count, column names, and exact data size are unknown.
• Instrument maximum depth of ~285m limits analysis to the upper ocean only.
• Platforms conflict on last updated date (2026-03-05 vs. 1955-02-15).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC.

Time Range

1953-01 12 to 1955-02-15

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:49:03.019237

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean, Malabar cruise