North Atlantic Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1964 MBT Survey

North Atlantic Ocean temperature-depth profiles were collected by the vessel SEARCHER using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) between May 22 and June 10, 1964. The National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) processed the data into the standard C128 format, which records temperature at uniform 5-meter depth intervals up to approximately 285 meters. This dataset provides a snapshot of the upper ocean's thermal structure from a specific mid-20th century cruise.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean (285m) for a specific time and region using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying short-term oceanographic variability during a three-week cruise in the North Atlantic using cruise, date, position, and time metadata.
• Comparing historical MBT instrument data against modern profiling methods to assess measurement consistency and biases.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring a consistent structure for analysis.
• Provides precise temporal (1964-05-22 to 1964-06-10) and geographic (North Atlantic Ocean) context for each observation.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating straightforward vertical profile analysis.

Limitations

• The MBT instrument's maximum depth of ~285m limits analysis to the upper ocean layers only.
• Key quantitative details like total row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• Conflicting 'last updated' metadata exists between platforms (2026-04-01 on Data.gov vs. 1964-06-10 on NASA EarthData).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from the vessel SEARCHER and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1964-05-22 to 1964-06-10

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:04:21.828244

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean