North Atlantic Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1965

North Atlantic Ocean temperature-depth profiles collected by the vessel SEARCHER using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) from March 17 to March 31, 1965. The dataset, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the C128 standard format, contains pairs of temperature and depth measurements at uniform 5-meter intervals down to approximately 285 meters. It includes cruise information, date, position, and time for each observation.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying short-term temperature variability in the North Atlantic during March 1965 using time-stamped profiles.
• Mapping spatial temperature gradients in the North Atlantic using latitude and longitude coordinates for each cast.
• Investigating instrument performance and data standardization of historical Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) records.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring consistent structure for temperature-depth pairs.
• Provides a focused temporal snapshot with a 15-day observation period in March 1965.
• Includes essential metadata (cruise, date, position, time) for each profile, supporting spatiotemporal analysis.

Limitations

• Maximum observation depth is limited to approximately 285 meters, restricting analysis to the upper ocean only.
• Key technical details are unknown, including row count, file size, and specific column names.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between platforms (2026-03-05 on Data.gov vs. 1965-03-31 on NASA Earthdata).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

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

Time Range

1965-03 17 to 1965-03-31

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:57:47.013591

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean