Caribbean Sea Bathythermograph Temperature-Depth Profiles from 1969

NOAA NCEI provides bathythermograph (MBT) data collected from the research vessel SAN ANDRES in the Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean. The dataset contains temperature-depth profiles from a six-week cruise between September 18 and October 28, 1969. Data has been processed by NODC into the standard C128 format, recording temperature at uniform 5-meter depth intervals down to approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical ocean thermal structure in the Caribbean Sea using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying seasonal upper-ocean heat content changes in late 1969 for the North Atlantic region.
• Validating ocean model simulations against observed temperature profiles from a specific cruise.
• Investigating the spatial distribution of near-surface temperature gradients from cruise track data.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a documented NODC standard format (C128), ensuring consistency.
• Temporal coverage is precisely defined for a specific six-week cruise in 1969.
• Measurement methodology is clearly described, with temperature recorded at uniform 5 m depth intervals.

Limitations

• Key quantitative details like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable.
• The maximum observation depth of ~285 m limits analysis to the upper ocean layers only.
• Metadata conflicts exist: one platform lists a last update in 2026, while another lists 1969.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during a research cruise.

Time Range

1969-09-18 to 1969-10-28

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:07:33.157235

Geography

Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean, from cruise SAN ANDRES.