Historical North Pacific Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1967

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the NOAA Ship Townsend Cromwell captures temperature-depth profiles of the upper ocean layers in the North Pacific. The dataset covers a one-month cruise from October 14 to November 14, 1967, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the standard C128 format. Each observation provides cruise information, date, position, time, and paired temperature-depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying spatial and temporal variability of sea surface temperature and subsurface layers during the 1967 cruise period.
• Correlating historical oceanographic conditions with atmospheric data from the same time and region using reported date, position, and time.
• Benchmarking or validating models of upper ocean heat content for the North Pacific basin.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a documented standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural consistency.
• Provides a focused temporal snapshot from a specific, well-documented research cruise over one month in 1967.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating systematic analysis of the water column.

Limitations

• Maximum observation depth is limited to approximately 285 meters, restricting analysis to the upper ocean only.
• Critical metadata such as row count, column names, and file size are unavailable across all platforms.
• A conflict exists in the 'last updated' field between platforms (2026 vs. 1967), casting doubt on metadata maintenance.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument on NOAA Ship Townsend Cromwell and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1967-10-14 to 1967-11-14

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:30:50.812623

Geography

North Pacific Ocean