Great Lakes Temperature Profiles from Mechanical Bathythermographs

Great Lakes region temperature-depth profiles collected during the SISCOWET project from April to December 1968. The dataset contains observations processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format for Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) data. It is managed by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.

Use Cases

• Analyzing seasonal thermal stratification in the Great Lakes using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying the upper ocean/lake layer structure up to approximately 285 meters depth.
• Correlating temperature profiles with specific cruise, date, position, and time metadata.
• Investigating historical temperature data recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a recognized standard format (NODC C128) ensuring consistency.
• Provides a focused temporal snapshot of the Great Lakes thermal structure over an 8-month period in 1968.
• Includes core metadata for each observation: cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Key technical details are missing: row count, column names, and file size are unknown.
• Instrument limitation: MBT maximum depth is ~285m, restricting analysis to upper water layers only.
• Conflicting freshness metadata: one platform lists a 2026 update date, while another lists the 1968 collection end date.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), from the SISCOWET project.

Collection Method

Temperature-depth profiles obtained using Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instruments and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1968-04 16 to 1968-12-04

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:20:51.156261

Geography

Great Lakes