Historical Bathythermograph Data from MITKOF in the Bering Sea

7501258 records temperature-depth profiles from the MITKOF research vessel in the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration processed this data into the NODC standard C128 format. Observations span from August 1955 to September 1956, capturing the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical sea surface temperature trends using recorded temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying the thermal structure of the upper ocean up to 285 meters depth.
• Mapping spatial and temporal temperature variations in the Bering Sea using cruise position data.
• Correlating ocean thermal layers with specific dates and times from the reported observation metadata.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized format (NODC C128), ensuring consistent structure.
• Temperature values are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating systematic analysis.
• Covers a specific 13-month time range (1955-08-11 to 1956-09-26) from a defined geographic area.

Limitations

• Key metadata conflicts: row count, column names, file size, and license are unknown across all sources.
• Instrument limitation: maximum depth is approximately 285 meters, restricting analysis to the ocean's upper layers only.
• The most recent platform update date (2026-03 05) is inconsistent with the dataset's age, suggesting a metadata refresh rather than data update.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC.

Time Range

1955-08-11 to 1956-09-26

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:56:36.826713

Geography

Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean