North Atlantic Temperature Profiles from the NORWALK Cruise

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the NORWALK cruise in the North Atlantic Ocean, capturing temperature-depth profiles of the upper ocean layers. The dataset covers a specific voyage from August 12 to September 19, 1965, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into its standard C128 format. Each observation includes cruise metadata, date, position, and time, with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean layers up to 285 meters depth using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying spatial and temporal variability of sea surface temperature and sub-surface layers during a late-summer North Atlantic cruise.
• Calibrating or validating ocean model simulations for the 1965 time period with in-situ profile data.
• Investigating cruise-specific oceanographic conditions by linking temperature profiles with reported position and time data.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring consistent structure for temperature-depth pairs.
• Provides precise temporal coverage for a specific research cruise over a 39-day period in 1965.
• Records observations at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating consistent vertical analysis.

Limitations

• Instrument limitation restricts observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, capturing only the upper ocean thermal structure.
• Key metadata such as exact row count, column names, and file size are unavailable across all platform descriptions.
• The most recent update date (2026-03 05) conflicts with the dataset's temporal content (1965), suggesting a metadata refresh rather than data update.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during the NORWALK cruise and processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC).

Time Range

1965-08-12 to 1965-09-19

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:12:02.621477

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean (specific cruise track for NORWALK)