Mechanical Bathythermograph Profiles from O'BRIEN Cruise in the North Pacific

Temperature-depth profiles from a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument deployed during the O'BRIEN cruise in the North Pacific Ocean on June 6, 1965. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format, recording temperature at uniform 5-meter depth intervals down to approximately 285 meters. This dataset provides a snapshot of the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layer from a single day.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical temperature gradient in the upper ocean on a specific date.
• Studying historical ocean thermal structure for climate change baselines.
• Validating or calibrating ocean model outputs for the North Pacific region.
• Investigating cruise-specific oceanographic conditions from 1965.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known, documented standard format (NODC C128).
• Provides high vertical resolution with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals.
• Contains precise geospatial and temporal context with cruise, date, position, and time for each observation.

Limitations

• Dataset is extremely limited temporally, covering only a single day (1965-06-06).
• Instrument depth range is limited to approximately 285 meters, restricting analysis to the upper ocean.
• Specific column names, row counts, and file size are unknown from available sources.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed to NODC standard format.

Time Range

1965-06-06 to 1965-06-06

Freshness

2026-04-01 14:58:33.129968

Geography

North Pacific Ocean (specific cruise track of O'BRIEN not detailed)