North Atlantic Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from NOAA Ship Mt. Mitchell

285 meters is the maximum depth for observations in this dataset, which contains mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data from a 13-day NOAA cruise in the North Atlantic Ocean. The data, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the C128 standard format, consists of paired temperature-depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals. It provides a snapshot of the thermal structure of the upper ocean layers from November 26 to December 8, 1968.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical temperature structure of the upper ocean to a depth of 285 meters.
• Studying short-term thermal variability in a specific region of the North Atlantic over a 13-day period.
• Using cruise information, date, position, and time metadata to contextualize historical oceanographic observations.
• Comparing historical MBT data with modern sensor data to assess changes in near-surface ocean heat content.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring consistent structure.
• Temperature-depth pairs are recorded at a uniform 5-meter vertical resolution, facilitating analysis.
• Provides a temporally focused 13-day time series from a single research cruise for coherent study.
• Cross-platform presence on government data portals indicates established provenance and importance.

Limitations

• The dataset is limited to the upper 285 meters of the ocean, excluding deeper thermal structures.
• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and file size are not provided across all sources.
• The last update date conflicts between sources (2026-03-05 on Data.gov vs. 1968-12-08 on NASA Earthdata).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC.

Time Range

1968-11 26 to 1968-12-08

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:24:45.006686

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean (specific cruise track of NOAA Ship Mt. Mitchell)