Historical Bathythermograph Temperature Profiles from the North Pacific

Temperature-depth profile data was collected by the vessel PLATTE using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument. The dataset covers a three-day period in September 1951 in the North Pacific Ocean, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format. Each observation includes cruise information, date, position, and time, with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals up to approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (0-285m) using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying short-term oceanographic variability by examining profiles from a specific cruise and time period (1951-09-22 to 1951-09-24).
• Validating or supplementing historical ocean temperature models for the North Pacific region using precisely located station data.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized NODC format (C128), ensuring consistent structure.
• Provides precise temporal and spatial context with reported cruise information, date, position, and time for each observation.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating systematic analysis.

Limitations

• Instrument limits observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, restricting analysis to the ocean's upper layers.
• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and license information are unavailable from the provided sources.
• A conflict exists in the 'last updated' metadata between platforms (2026-03-05 vs. 1951-09-24).

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from the vessel PLATTE and processed to the NODC C128 standard format.

Time Range

1951-09-22 to 1951-09-24

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:02:28.033141

Geography

North Pacific Ocean