Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from the OPOSSUM Expedition

1955-02-14 to 1957-10-20 temperature-depth profiles collected by the OPOSSUM expedition in the Bay of Bengal, Gulf of Thailand, Indian Ocean, and South China Sea. The dataset contains mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) observations processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format. It provides a focused record of upper-ocean thermal structure during the mid-1950s.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical sea surface temperature and subsurface thermal structure in the Bay of Bengal.
• Studying seasonal or interannual variability in the upper 285 meters of the ocean from 1955 to 1957.
• Validating regional ocean model hindcasts for the mid-20th century using in-situ temperature-depth pairs.
• Mapping cruise tracks and sampling locations using reported position, date, and time for each observation.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a documented standard format (NODC C128), ensuring consistent structure.
• Provides a multi-year time series (1955-1957) across several major ocean basins.
• Temperature data is recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating comparative analysis.

Limitations

• Instrument limits observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, restricting analysis to the upper ocean.
• Key metadata such as exact row count, column names, and license are unavailable across all sources.
• The last updated date conflicts between platforms (2026-03-05 on Data.gov vs. 1957-10 20 on NASA Earthdata).

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originating from the OPOSSUM expedition.

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements, processed by NODC.

Time Range

1955-02-14 to 1957-10-20

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:32:29.310832

Geography

Bay of Bengal, Gulf of Thailand, Indian Ocean, South China Sea