Bathythermograph Temperature Profiles from PERSEUS Cruise

Temperature-depth profiles from the PERSEUS cruise in the Japan Sea and North Pacific Ocean, collected using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument. The dataset contains pairs of temperature and depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format. Observations cover a six-week period from February to April 1965.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean up to approximately 285 meters depth.
• Studying seasonal temperature changes in the Japan Sea and North Pacific during early 1965.
• Correlating temperature profiles with cruise metadata including date, position, and time for each observation.
• Using as a historical reference for upper-ocean heat content studies in the region.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a documented standard format (NODC C128), ensuring consistency.
• Temperature values are recorded at a uniform 5-meter depth interval, facilitating analysis.
• Each observation is linked to specific cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• The MBT instrument limits observations to a maximum depth of ~285 meters, restricting analysis to the upper ocean only.
• The dataset's temporal coverage is limited to a specific six-week cruise in 1965.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Collection Method

Collected via Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during the PERSEUS cruise and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1965-02-24 to 1965-04-06

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:47:26.985976

Geography

Japan Sea and North Pacific Ocean.