Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from SAUGATUCK Cruise in 1966

August-September 1966 temperature-depth profiles collected by the mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument aboard the SAUGATUCK vessel. Data covers the East China Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, and South China Sea, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format. The dataset comprises pairs of temperature-depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal gradient in the upper ocean (0-285m) using temperature-depth pairs.
• Mapping regional sea surface temperature patterns from cruise track data.
• Studying short-term oceanic thermal changes during the late summer of 1966.
• Calibrating or validating historical ocean model simulations for the western Pacific.
• Investigating the spatial distribution of the thermocline across multiple sea basins.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known, documented standard (NODC C128 format).
• Provides a focused temporal snapshot from a specific 38-day cruise in 1966.
• Contains structured, uniformly sampled temperature measurements at 5-meter depth intervals.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as exact row count, column names, and file size are unavailable from all sources.
• Instrument limitation restricts observations to the upper ocean (max ~285m depth).
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between platforms (2026-04-01 vs 1966-09 26).

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements from the SAUGATUCK vessel.

Time Range

1966-08-19 to 1966-09-26

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:21:26.944423

Geography

East China Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, South China Sea