Historical Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from the South Pacific

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the vessel STELLA MARIS captures temperature-depth profiles of the upper ocean. The dataset contains observations from a single cruise in the South Pacific Ocean during November 1966. Data was processed and standardized by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the NODC C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper 285 meters of the ocean using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying spatial and temporal patterns of sea surface temperature in the South Pacific for a specific week in 1966.
• Correlating cruise information, date, position, and time with observed temperature profiles.
• Using uniformly sampled data (5-meter depth intervals) for comparative studies of oceanographic instrumentation.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring a consistent structure.
• Provides precise temporal coverage for a specific cruise from 1966-11-23 to 1966-11 30.
• Records data at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating straightforward analysis.

Limitations

• The dataset is limited to the upper ocean, with a maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from the provided sources.
• Data is from a single, brief cruise, limiting spatial and temporal representativeness.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Collection Method

Observations gathered using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from the vessel STELLA MARIS, later processed by NODC.

Time Range

1966-11-23 to 1966-11-30

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:29:36.480014

Geography

South Pacific Ocean.