Historical Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from Mission Buenaventura

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data from the 1966 Mission Buenaventura cruise in the North Pacific Ocean. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical temperature structure of the upper ocean for a specific three-week period in 1966.
• Investigating spatial patterns of sea surface temperature and subsurface thermal layers from cruise position data.
• Serving as a historical baseline for comparative studies of ocean warming or upper ocean heat content.
• Validating or calibrating ocean model simulations of the North Pacific's near-surface thermal properties.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known, documented standard (NODC C128 format).
• Temperature measurements are recorded at a consistent, high-resolution interval of 5 meters.
• Provides precise temporal (1966-06 08 to 1966-06-28) and geographic (North Pacific Ocean) context for each profile.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• Instrument limitation restricts observations to a maximum depth of ~285 m, capturing only the upper ocean.
• Sources conflict on the 'last updated' date, with one showing a future date (2026-04-01) and another the collection end date (1966-06-28).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during the Mission Buenaventura cruise and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1966-06-08 to 1966-06-28

Freshness

2026-04-01 14:59:53.286716

Geography

North Pacific Ocean