HMAS Stuart Bathythermograph Profiles from 1966-1968

NOAA NCEI provides mechanical bathythermograph data collected by HMAS Stuart across multiple Asian and Pacific Ocean regions from March 1966 to March 1968. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters. Data has been processed into the NODC standard C128 format, focusing on the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical sea surface temperature and subsurface thermal structure in the Coral Sea using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying upper ocean heat content variability in the South China Sea across the two-year observation period.
• Validating regional ocean model simulations of the mixed layer depth using profile data from the Philippine Sea.
• Investigating seasonal temperature changes in the Indian Ocean based on cruise date and position metadata.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to a known NODC format (C128), ensuring consistent structure for analysis.
• Profiles offer high vertical resolution with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.
• Covers a wide geographic area spanning 12 distinct ocean regions in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Limitations

• Platforms disagree on key metrics: datagov lists a last updated date of 2026-04-01, while nasa_earthdata shows 1968-03-20, creating uncertainty about data currency.
• Instrument limitation restricts observations to a maximum depth of ~285 m, capturing only the upper ocean thermal structure.
• Essential metadata such as row count, column names, file size, and license are unavailable across all sources.

Provenance

Source

NOAA_NCEI

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument on HMAS Stuart and processed to NODC standard C128 format.

Time Range

1966-03-01 to 1968-03-20

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:01:16.295135

Geography

Andaman Sea, Burma Sea, Bismarck Sea, Coral Sea, East China Sea, Gulf of Thailand, Indian Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, Solomon Sea, South China Sea, South Pacific Ocean, Tasman Sea.