Mission Buenaventura Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the R/V Mission Buenaventura cruise in the Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean during November and December 1966. The dataset consists of temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters. It has been processed and standardized by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying historical sea surface temperature and mixed layer depth variability in the Caribbean Sea.
• Validating ocean model reanalyses for the 1960s using precise cruise date, position, and time metadata.
• Investigating short-term oceanographic changes during a specific late-1966 cruise track.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring consistency.
• Provides precise temporal coverage for a specific cruise from 1966-11-13 to 1966-12-09.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating analysis.

Limitations

• Key quantitative details like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• The mechanical bathythermograph instrument limits observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Conflicting 'last updated' metadata exists between platforms (2026 vs 1966), casting doubt on provenance timeliness.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during a research cruise and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1966-11-13 to 1966-12-09

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:48:46.463946

Geography

Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean