South China Sea Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1967

NOAA NCEI provides bathythermograph (MBT) data collected by the O'BRIEN vessel in the South China Sea from January 7 to 21, 1967. The dataset contains processed temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, useful for studying the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers. Data is formatted to the NODC standard C128 format for mechanical bathythermograph observations.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical temperature-depth profiles in the South China Sea upper ocean (up to ~285m).
• Studying cruise-specific ocean thermal structure using reported date, position, and time for each observation.
• Investigating uniform 5-meter interval temperature data formatted in the NODC C128 standard.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a recognized standard format (NODC C128) for consistency.
• Provides a focused temporal snapshot from a specific two-week cruise in January 1967.
• Temperature data is recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating structured analysis.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and file size are unavailable from all sources.
• The mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument limits observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Sources conflict on the 'last updated' date (2026-03-05 vs. 1967-01-21), creating uncertainty about metadata maintenance.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally from NODC.

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed to the NODC C128 format.

Time Range

1967-01-07 to 1967-01-21

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:29:52.900955

Geography

South China Sea, from the O'BRIEN vessel cruise.