North Pacific Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1949-1969

North Pacific Ocean temperature-depth profiles collected from three vessels using mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments between 1949 and 1969. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format, recording temperature at uniform 5-meter depth intervals up to approximately 285 meters. This dataset provides a two-decade record of the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers for the specified region.

Use Cases

• Analyzing decadal temperature trends in the upper ocean (0-285m) using temperature-depth pairs.
• Mapping spatial thermal structure from cruise information, date, position, and time columns.
• Calibrating or validating ocean mixed-layer models with historical in-situ profile data.
• Studying seasonal or interannual variability in near-surface ocean heat content.

Strengths

• Provides a consistent 20-year time series from 1949-03-06 to 1969-04-04.
• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring uniform 5-meter depth intervals for comparison.
• Contains precise geospatial and temporal metadata (cruise, date, position, time) for each profile.

Limitations

• Instrument limitation restricts observations to a maximum depth of ~285m, capturing only the upper ocean.
• Sources conflict on last updated date: datagov reports 2026-03 05 (metadata update), while nasa_earthdata reports 1969-04-04 (data collection end).
• Specific column names, total row count, and dataset size are unknown from provided sources.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originating from vessels BLACK DOUGLAS, HORIZON, and SIO BUOY.

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument casts, processed by NODC.

Time Range

1949-03-06 to 1969-04-04

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:10:32.810725

Geography

North Pacific Ocean