NOAA Ship Delaware II North Atlantic Temperature Profiles

July 13-30, 1980 temperature-depth profiles collected via expendable bathythermograph (XBT) instruments from the 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, containing pairs of temperature and depth values recorded at inflection points to define the temperature curve. This dataset represents a specific historical oceanographic cruise and is hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical temperature structure in the North Atlantic using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying short-term oceanic variability during a specific July 1980 cruise.
• Calibrating or validating ocean models with historical in-situ profile data.
• Researching data processing methods for historical bathythermograph (C116 format) records.

Strengths

• Clear temporal coverage for a specific 18-day cruise in July 1980.
• Data processed to a documented NODC standard format (C116) for consistency.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA Earthdata indicates recognized importance.

Limitations

• Exact row count, column names, and file size are unknown from all sources.
• Data is from a single, short cruise, limiting spatial and temporal representativeness.
• The most recent update date (2026-03-05) conflicts with the data's age (1980), suggesting metadata maintenance rather than data revision.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via expendable bathythermograph (XBT) instruments from NOAA Ship Delaware II and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1980-07 13 to 1980-07-30

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:59:29.416712

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean