Historical North Atlantic Ocean Temperature Profiles from SELLSTROM Cruise

This dataset contains mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) measurements from the SELLSTROM cruise in the North Atlantic Ocean, spanning from May 1957 to February 1960. The data has been processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format, providing temperature-depth profile pairs at uniform 5-meter intervals. It is managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) over a multi-year period.
• Studying seasonal or interannual temperature variability in the North Atlantic using cruise, date, position, and time metadata.
• Calibrating or validating ocean model simulations for the late 1950s with precise temperature-depth pairs.
• Investigating the methodology and data characteristics of historical mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring consistent structure for temperature-depth profile pairs.
• Provides a continuous, nearly three-year time series (1957-1960) from a specific research cruise.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating systematic analysis.

Limitations

• Key quantitative details like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• The MBT instrument's maximum depth of approximately 285 meters limits analysis to the ocean's upper layers only.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between platforms (2026-03-05 on Data.gov vs. 1960-02-25 on NASA Earthdata).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Measurements gathered using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during the SELLSTROM cruise and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1957-05-23 to 1960-02-25

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:25:50.706796

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean