Historical Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from NESTUCCA Cruise

July 1965 data from the NESTUCCA cruise in the North Pacific Ocean, containing temperature-depth profiles from a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT). The dataset is processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format, with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters. It provides a snapshot of the ocean's thermal structure for a specific 12-day period.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean (using paired temperature-depth values).
• Studying short-term temperature variability in a specific oceanic region (using date, time, and position columns).
• Validating or calibrating models of historical ocean surface layer conditions.
• Investigating cruise-specific oceanographic observations from the 1960s.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural consistency.
• Provides precise temporal coverage for a 12-day cruise from July 1 to July 12, 1965.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at a consistent 5-meter depth interval, facilitating analysis.

Limitations

• Instrument limitation: MBT data is only useful for the upper ocean, with a maximum depth of ~285m.
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• A conflict exists in 'last updated' metadata between platforms (2026-04-01 vs. 1965-07-12).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce (processed by NODC).

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements, processed to the NODC standard Bathythermograph (C128) format.

Time Range

1965-07-01 to 1965-07-12

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:04:05.586140

Geography

North Pacific Ocean (from the NESTUCCA cruise).