Historical Bathythermograph Data for Upper Ocean Thermal Structure

NOAA_NCEI provides mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data from the STORM project, processed to the NODC C128 standard. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals from the Coastal Waters of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, Gulf of Alaska, and the North Pacific Ocean. Observations span from June 18, 1961, to September 24, 1965.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) using temperature-depth pairs.
• Investigating seasonal or interannual temperature variability in coastal and open ocean waters from 1961-1965.
• Validating regional ocean models with historical in-situ temperature profile data.
• Studying cruise-based spatial patterns of near-surface ocean temperature.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a consistent standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural uniformity.
• Provides a multi-year time series (1961-1965) for analyzing temporal changes.
• Includes precise metadata for each observation: cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Instrument limitation: MBT maximum depth is ~285 meters, restricting analysis to the upper ocean layer.
• Critical metadata conflicts: row count, column names, file size, and license are unknown across all platforms.
• Data is historical; the last observation date is 1965-09-24.

Provenance

Source

NOAA_NCEI (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Centers for Environmental Information).

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument during the STORM project and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1961-06-18 to 1965-09-24

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:42:21.838553

Geography

Coastal Waters of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, Gulf of Alaska, North Pacific Ocean.