Mediterranean Sea Temperature Profiles from 1959 MBT Survey

Mediterranean Sea temperature-depth profile data collected from the vessel MISSISSINEWA on a single day, November 19, 1959. The dataset was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format for Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) data. It captures the thermal structure of the upper ocean layers with measurements at uniform 5-meter intervals.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical temperature structure of the upper ocean on a specific historical date.
• Studying short-term thermal properties in the Mediterranean Sea using temperature-depth pairs.
• Validating or calibrating historical oceanographic models with precisely located profile data (cruise, date, position, time).
• Researching the capabilities and data characteristics of the Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural consistency.
• Provides precise spatial and temporal context for each observation (cruise, date, position, time).
• Temperature measurements are recorded at a consistent sampling interval of 5 meters depth.

Limitations

• The dataset is extremely limited in temporal scope, covering only one day (1959-11-19).
• The MBT instrument's maximum depth of approximately 285 meters restricts analysis to the upper ocean layers.
• Conflicting 'last updated' metadata exists between platforms (2026-03-05 on Data.gov vs. 1959-11-19 on NASA Earthdata).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1959-11 19 to 1959-11-19

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:33:01.316081

Geography

Mediterranean Sea, specific locations from the MISSISSINEWA cruise.