PONCHATOULA Bathythermograph Temperature-Depth Profiles from 1958

NOAA NCEI provides bathythermograph (MBT) data from the vessel PONCHATOULA, covering the North Pacific Ocean and Philippine Sea. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters. Data was collected during a single cruise from June 12 to September 22, 1958, and processed into the NODC standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (0-285m) using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying spatial and temporal temperature variations in the North Pacific and Philippine Sea during 1958.
• Correlating cruise information, date, position, and time with observed temperature profiles for historical reconstruction.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized format (NODC C128), ensuring consistency.
• Provides a specific temporal snapshot from a defined cruise spanning over three months in 1958.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating analysis.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• The mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument limits observations to the upper ~285 meters of the ocean.
• Sources conflict on the 'last updated' date, with one showing 2026-03 06 and another showing the original collection end date of 1958-09-22.

Provenance

Source

NOAA NCEI (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Centers for Environmental Information).

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from the vessel PONCHATOULA and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1958-06-12 to 1958-09-22

Freshness

2026.03-06 00:11:12.396242

Geography

North Pacific Ocean and Philippine Sea.