Historical Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from TALUGA Cruise

285 meters is the maximum depth for temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals. The dataset contains mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) observations from the TALUGA cruise across the East China Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, and South China Sea. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper 285 meters of the ocean using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying spatial temperature gradients across the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and South China Sea.
• Investigating seasonal ocean temperature changes from November 1963 to March 1964.
• Using cruise information, date, position, and time metadata to correlate observations with specific voyages.

Strengths

• Data is structured to the NODC standard C128 format, ensuring consistency for historical comparison.
• Temperature readings are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, providing a standardized vertical profile.
• Covers a specific four-month cruise across multiple western Pacific seas, offering a coherent spatial and temporal snapshot.

Limitations

• Conflicting metadata exists for the last updated date (2026-03-05 on datagov vs. 1964-03-30 on nasa_earthdata).
• Limited to the upper ocean (max ~285m depth), excluding deeper water thermal properties.
• Exact row count, file size, column names, and license information are unavailable from provided sources.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), organization NOAA_NCEI.

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC.

Time Range

1963-11-21 to 1964-03-30

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:57:52.637459

Geography

East China Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, South China Sea