Mediterranean Sea Upper Layer Temperature Profiles from 1968

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data from the R/V Planet cruise in the Mediterranean Sea during May 1968. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format. This data is specifically for studying 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 Mediterranean Sea's upper 285 meters using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying short-term (10-day) ocean temperature variability during a specific cruise in May 1968.
• Correlating historical oceanographic conditions with cruise information, date, position, and time for each observation.
• Benchmarking or validating models of upper-ocean heat content in a semi-enclosed sea.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a consistent, documented standard (NODC C128 format).
• Temperature values are recorded at a uniform, high-resolution 5-meter depth interval.
• Provides precise spatiotemporal context with cruise, date, position, and time for each profile.
• 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 unavailable across all sources.
• Instrument limitation restricts observations to a maximum depth of ~285m, excluding deeper ocean layers.
• Temporal coverage is very brief, spanning only 10 days in May 1968.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originating from R/V Planet cruise.

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1968-05 14 to 1968-05-24

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:21:39.317923

Geography

Mediterranean Sea