Historical Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from USS Shelton

Temperature-depth profiles from the mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument deployed by the USS Shelton across the Coral Sea, North Pacific, and South Pacific Oceans. The dataset contains observations processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format, covering an 18-year period from 1948 to 1966. Data points are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, with a maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing temperature-depth pairs to model the thermal structure of the upper 285 meters of the ocean.
• Investigating long-term temperature trends in the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean over an 18-year period.
• Correlating cruise information, date, position, and time with observed temperature profiles for spatiotemporal analysis.
• Studying the limitations of mid-20th century MBT instrumentation for historical oceanographic data validation.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring a consistent structure.
• Provides an 18-year temporal record (1948-1966) from a specific vessel, offering a longitudinal perspective.
• Observations cover multiple ocean basins (Coral Sea, North Pacific, South Pacific), providing geographic breadth.
• Temperature data is recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating systematic analysis of the water column.

Limitations

• Maximum observation depth is limited to ~285 meters, restricting analysis to the upper ocean layers only.
• Key metadata such as exact row count, column names, and license information are unavailable from the provided sources.
• The last updated date conflicts between platforms (2026-03-05 on Data.gov vs. 1966-07-14 on NASA Earthdata).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce (via NODC).

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed to the NODC C128 format.

Time Range

1948.09.02 - 1966.07.14

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:26:48.646374

Geography

Coral Sea, North Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean.