Historical North Pacific Ocean Temperature Profiles from NOAA Ship Townsend Cromwell

Mechanical bathythermograph data captures temperature-depth profiles from the upper 285 meters of the North Pacific Ocean. The dataset contains observations from the NOAA Ship Townsend Cromwell, processed into the NODC standard C128 format with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals. Data collection occurred between October 1968 and November 1969.

Use Cases

• Analyzing thermal stratification in the upper ocean using temperature-depth value pairs.
• Studying seasonal temperature changes in the North Pacific from 1968 to 1969.
• Mapping cruise-based oceanographic observations using reported date, position, and time.
• Calibrating modern ocean models with historical upper-layer temperature profiles.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural consistency.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at a uniform 5-meter depth interval, facilitating analysis.
• Each observation includes associated metadata: cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• The maximum observation depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the ocean's upper layers.
• Key metadata such as row count, specific columns, and license information are unavailable from the provided sources.
• A conflict exists for the 'last_updated' date between platforms (2026-03-05 on datagov vs. 1969-11-23 on nasa_earthdata).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC.

Time Range

1968-10-04 to 1969-11-23

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:22:32.810786

Geography

North Pacific Ocean