Historical North Pacific Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles

Temperature-depth profiles were collected using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) from the NOAA Ship Townsend Cromwell in the North Pacific Ocean. The dataset, processed into the NODC standard C128 format, contains observations from a single cruise spanning September 22 to October 5, 1967. It is managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical temperature structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) at 5-meter intervals.
• Studying short-term thermal variability during a specific autumn cruise in the North Pacific.
• Correlating temperature profiles with recorded cruise information, date, position, and time for each cast.
• Providing a historical baseline for comparison with modern upper-ocean temperature data.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known, standard format (NODC C128) ensuring consistent structure.
• Provides precise temporal and spatial context with recorded cruise, date, position, and time for each profile.
• Temperature values are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating straightforward analysis.

Limitations

• The MBT instrument limits observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, capturing only the upper ocean.
• Key metadata such as exact row count, column names, and license are not provided across platforms.
• The dataset represents a very short time range (two weeks) from a single cruise, limiting temporal scope.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by NODC to the C128 format.

Time Range

1967-09-22 to 1967-10-05

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:23:12.316205

Geography

North Pacific Ocean