Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from Alaska and North Pacific

Temperature-depth profiles collected using Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instruments from the vessel OSHAWA. The dataset covers coastal waters of Southeast Alaska, British Columbia, the Gulf of Alaska, and the North Pacific Ocean. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing thermal structure in the upper 285 meters of the ocean using temperature-depth value pairs.
• Studying seasonal or interannual temperature variability in coastal Alaska waters from 1957 to 1964.
• Correlating cruise information, date, position, and time with observed temperature profiles.
• Investigating near-surface ocean heat content changes in a specific historical period.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural consistency.
• Provides a multi-year time series from 1957 to 1964 for temporal analysis.
• Includes precise metadata for each observation: cruise, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Maximum observation depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the ocean's upper layers.
• Specific row counts, file size, and column details are unavailable from the provided sources.
• Conflicting 'last updated' metadata exists between platforms (2026 vs. 1964), casting doubt on maintenance.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements, processed to NODC standard C128 format.

Time Range

1957-04-25 to 1964-04-09

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:18:14.063616

Geography

Coastal Waters of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, Gulf of Alaska, North Pacific Ocean