Historical Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from the PERSEUS Cruise

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data collected during the PERSEUS cruise across the East China Sea, North Pacific Ocean, and Philippine Sea in 1966. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (to ~285m) using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying spatial temperature gradients across the East China Sea, North Pacific, and Philippine Sea using reported position data.
• Investigating short-term oceanic variability during the 1966 cruise period using date and time stamps for each profile.
• Calibrating or validating ocean model simulations of historical upper-ocean conditions.
• Examining cruise-specific oceanographic observations using reported cruise information metadata.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring consistency for analysis.
• Provides a focused temporal snapshot from a specific 1966 cruise (1966-05-03 to 1966-06 05).
• Temperature measurements are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating profile comparison.

Limitations

• Instrument limitation restricts observations to a maximum depth of ~285m, capturing only the upper ocean layer.
• Critical metadata conflicts exist: the 'last updated' date differs significantly between Data.gov (2026-04-01) and NASA Earthdata (1966-06-05).
• Column names, exact row count, file size, and license information are unknown across all platforms.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC.

Time Range

1966-05-03 to 1966-06-05

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:33:23.906886

Geography

East China Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea