NOAA Ship Delaware II XBT Temperature-Depth Profiles from 1979

A dataset of 68 days of bathythermograph (XBT) temperature-depth profiles collected by NOAA Ship Delaware II in the North Atlantic Ocean. The data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C116 format, which records temperature at non-uniform inflection points to define the profile curve. This historical dataset is part of NCEI Accession 8100062.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical ocean temperature structure from inflection point data (temperature-depth pairs).
• Studying seasonal oceanographic conditions in the North Atlantic during a specific 1979 cruise.
• Calibrating or validating ocean model outputs against historical in-situ profile data.
• Tracking cruise-based data collection metadata including position, date, and time for each observation.

Strengths

• Data covers a specific 68-day research cruise from 1979-09-13 to 1979-11-19, providing a temporally focused snapshot.
• Processed to the NODC standard C116 format, ensuring consistency with a known historical data standard.
• Profiles capture temperature at key inflection points, optimizing data storage while aiming to accurately define the temperature curve.

Limitations

• Key quantitative details like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• The dataset's license information is not provided, creating uncertainty for reuse.
• Data is historical and from a single cruise, limiting spatial and temporal generalizability.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), collected from NOAA Ship Delaware II.

Collection Method

Data gathered using expendable bathythermograph (XBT) instruments and processed by NODC into the C116 format.

Time Range

1979-09 13 to 1979-11-19

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:31:53.578362

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean