North Pacific Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1952-1953

285 meters is the maximum depth for temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at 5-meter intervals by the MARIAS expedition. The dataset contains mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) observations processed into the NODC C128 standard format. It captures the thermal structure of the upper ocean layers in the North Pacific from November 1952 to September 1953.

Use Cases

• Analyzing seasonal thermal structure changes in the upper 285m of the North Pacific using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying historical oceanographic cruise data with reported position, date, and time for each observation.
• Calibrating or validating ocean model simulations of upper ocean heat content for the early 1950s.
• Investigating the spatial distribution of near-surface ocean temperatures from a specific research vessel mission.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128) ensuring consistent structure.
• Provides a continuous time series of ocean observations over a 10-month period from 1952-11-04 to 1953-09-28.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at a uniform, high-resolution depth interval of 5 meters.

Limitations

• Key metadata conflicts exist: row count, file size, and license are reported as unknown or 'None' across all platforms.
• Instrument limitation restricts data to the upper ocean only, with a maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters.
• The dataset is historical and may lack modern quality control or metadata completeness.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC.

Time Range

1952-11-04 to 1953-09-28

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:43:57.891907

Geography

North Pacific Ocean