Historical XBT Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1974-1976

Temperature-depth profiles collected using expendable bathythermograph (XBT) instruments across multiple oceans and seas between October 1974 and May 1976. Data was gathered from over 50 vessels, including research ships and naval vessels, and processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C116 format. The dataset captures ocean thermal structure at non-uniform depth intervals, focusing on inflection points to define the temperature curve.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical temperature structure and thermocline depth across major ocean basins using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying seasonal or regional ocean heat content changes in the 1970s using time-stamped profile data.
• Mapping the operational tracks of specific research or naval vessels through cruise information and positional data.
• Comparing measurement techniques between XBT inflection-point data and other bathythermograph data recorded at uniform intervals.

Strengths

• Contains data from over 50 distinct vessels, providing a multi-platform observational network.
• Covers a wide geographic range including the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian Oceans, and several marginal seas.
• Data is processed to a documented standard format (NODC C116), ensuring a consistent structure.
• Profiles record temperature at non-uniform depths optimized to capture key inflection points in the temperature curve.

Limitations

• Exact row count, column names, and dataset size are unknown from all provided sources.
• The temporal coverage is limited to a specific 20-month period from 1974 to 1976.
• Sources conflict on the 'last updated' metadata, with one platform listing 2026 and another listing 1976.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally from the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC).

Collection Method

Collected via expendable bathythermograph (XBT) instruments deployed from ships.

Time Range

1974-10-14 to 1976-05-18

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:23:05.375412

Geography

Alboran Sea, Andaman Sea, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Alaska, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Oman, Indian Ocean, Laccadive Sea, Mediterranean Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Philippine Sea, Red Sea, South Atlantic Ocean, South China Sea, South Pacific Ocean.