Ocean Temperature Profiles from O'Brien Cruise in 1964

Temperature-depth profile data collected using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) from the vessel O'Brien in the North Pacific Ocean. The dataset contains observations from a 10-day cruise in August 1964, processed into the NODC standard C128 format. Each record includes cruise metadata and paired temperature-depth measurements.

Use Cases

• Analyzing upper ocean thermal stratification using temperature-depth pairs recorded at 5-meter intervals.
• Studying historical sea surface temperature variability in the North Pacific for a specific time period.
• Validating ocean model outputs for the upper 285 meters using in-situ profile data.
• Correlating cruise-reported position and time metadata with other contemporaneous oceanographic observations.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural consistency.
• Provides precise temporal and spatial context with reported cruise information, date, position, and time for each observation.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating systematic analysis.

Limitations

• The maximum observation depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the upper ocean layers only.
• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and license information are unavailable from all sources.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC.

Time Range

1964-08-01 to 1964-08-10

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:04:09.035271

Geography

North Pacific Ocean