NOAA Ship Delaware II Bathythermograph Profiles from 1986 North Atlantic Cruise

Bathythermograph (XBT) data from a 1986 NOAA research cruise provides temperature-depth profiles for the North Atlantic Ocean. The dataset 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 ocean's thermal curve. This historic data is now part of the NODC Ocean Profile Data Base.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical ocean temperature structure using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying seasonal or historical ocean thermal conditions in the North Atlantic region.
• Validating ocean model outputs against in-situ profile measurements from a specific cruise.
• Researching expendable bathythermograph (XBT) instrument data collection and processing methods.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a documented NODC standard format (C116) for consistency.
• Provides a specific temporal snapshot from a defined cruise lasting from June 21 to August 7, 1986.
• Records temperature at inflection points, optimizing data to accurately define the thermal profile curve.

Limitations

• The exact row count, column names, and dataset size are unknown from the provided sources.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date, with one showing a future date (2026-04-01) and another the collection end date (1986-08-07).
• The license information is not provided, which may restrict certain uses.

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.

Time Range

1986-06 21 to 1986-08-07

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:10:48.263515

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean