Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from the N. B. SCOFIELD

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the N. B. SCOFIELD vessel provides temperature-depth profiles for the upper ocean layers in the North Pacific. The dataset spans a 17-year period from 1951 to 1968, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the standard C128 format. Each observation includes cruise metadata, position, and time alongside temperature readings at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.

Use Cases

• Analyzing decadal-scale thermal structure changes in the North Pacific upper ocean (using temperature-depth pairs and timestamps).
• Calibrating or validating historical ocean model simulations for the mid-20th century (using precise geospatial and temporal metadata).
• Studying the methodology and coverage of early mechanical bathythermograph surveys (using cruise information and instrument-specific depth limits).

Strengths

• Provides a consistent 17-year temporal record (1951-1968) for studying ocean climate variability.
• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural consistency.
• Includes precise metadata for each profile: cruise, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Data is limited to the upper ~285 meters of the ocean, restricting analysis of deeper thermal structures.
• Key quantitative details like total row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• The NASA Earthdata entry lacks a descriptive summary, limiting cross-platform synthesis.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originating from the N. B. SCOFIELD vessel.

Collection Method

Collected using mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments and processed by NODC to the C128 format.

Time Range

1951-01-01 to 1968-06-26

Freshness

Metadata was last updated on 2026-03-05 according to Data.gov, though the underlying data collection ended in 1968.

Geography

North Pacific Ocean