USS Mansfield Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the USS Mansfield provides temperature-depth profiles for the upper ocean layers across the East China Sea, Japan Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, and South China Sea. The dataset spans over two decades from October 1949 to April 1970 and has been processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the standard C128 format. Each observation includes cruise information, date, position, time, and temperature readings recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.

Use Cases

• Analyzing decadal changes in sea surface temperature and upper ocean heat content using the temperature-depth value pairs.
• Mapping historical thermal structure for ocean model validation using the reported position and time data.
• Studying naval survey methodologies and historical data collection techniques from the mid-20th century.

Strengths

• Provides a long temporal record spanning over 20 years from 1949 to 1970.
• Data is standardized into the NODC C128 format, ensuring consistent structure with uniform 5-meter depth intervals.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA Earthdata signals its importance and curation.

Limitations

• The maximum observation depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the upper ocean layers only.
• Conflicts exist in metadata: the last updated date is reported as 2026-04-01 on Data.gov but 1970-04-01 on NASA Earthdata, and specific row counts, column names, and file sizes are unknown.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument aboard the USS Mansfield and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1949-10-01 to 1970-04-01

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:14:22.765481

Geography

East China Sea, Japan Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, South China Sea.