Historical Bathythermograph Temperature Profiles from the Bering Sea

Bathythermograph (MBT) data from the Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, and North Pacific Ocean, collected from 1961 to 1966. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals up to approximately 285 meters. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical upper-ocean thermal structure using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying spatial temperature variation across the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska using cruise position data.
• Investigating seasonal or interannual temperature changes from 1961 to 1966 using date and time fields.
• Calibrating or validating ocean models with in-situ historical profile data.

Strengths

• Data covers a multi-year time range from May 1961 to July 1966.
• Profiles provide consistent measurements at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.
• Each observation includes associated cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Instrument maximum depth of ~285m limits analysis to the ocean's upper layers only.
• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and exact file size are unavailable from all sources.
• Sources conflict on the 'last updated' date (2026-04-01 vs. 1966-07-23), creating uncertainty about recent curation.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC to C128 format.

Time Range

1961-05-12 to 1966-07-23

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:22:09.365138

Geography

St. Michael, Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, North Pacific Ocean