NORWALK Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the research vessel NORWALK, capturing temperature-depth profiles in the North Atlantic Ocean. The dataset contains pairs of temperature and depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center. It covers a 70-day cruise from March to May 1967.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to 285m) using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying seasonal changes in the North Atlantic's surface layer during spring 1967 using cruise date and position data.
• Calibrating or validating ocean models with historical in-situ temperature profiles recorded at 5m intervals.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized NODC format (C128), ensuring consistent structure.
• Profiles provide high vertical resolution with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.
• Each observation includes associated metadata: cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• The mechanical bathythermograph instrument limits observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Sources conflict on the last update date: one states 2026-03-06, another states the original data date of 1967-05 22.
• Key quantitative details like total row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Data gathered using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by NODC to the C128 standard format.

Time Range

1967-03-13 to 1967-05-22

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:20:26.708599

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean (specific cruise track of NORWALK vessel)