North Atlantic Ocean Temperature Profiles from OUTPOST Cruise

Temperature-depth profiles from the OUTPOST cruise in the North Atlantic Ocean, collected from January 22 to 31, 1965. The dataset contains pairs of temperature and depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT), processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format. It captures the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying short-term temperature variability in the North Atlantic during January 1965 using cruise date and time data.
• Mapping regional upper-ocean thermal conditions using reported position (latitude/longitude) information.
• Investigating the performance and data characteristics of the Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a documented standard format (NODC C128), ensuring consistent structure.
• Provides specific temporal coverage for a focused research cruise from 1965-01-22 to 1965-01-31.
• Records temperature at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, enabling systematic profile analysis.
• Cross-platform presence (Data.gov, NASA Earthdata) indicates recognized archival importance.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, specific column names, and license are unreported across all sources.
• Instrument limitation: MBT maximum depth is ~285m, restricting analysis to the ocean's upper layers only.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during the OUTPOST cruise and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1965-01-22 to 1965-01-31

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:55:48.326725

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean