South Pacific Ocean Temperature Profiles from USNS Thomas Washington, 1969

South Pacific Ocean temperature-depth profiles collected by the USNS Thomas Washington using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) from June 16-21, 1969. The dataset, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format, contains pairs of temperature and depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals. It is published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical temperature structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) for a specific cruise.
• Studying short-term thermal variability in the South Pacific Ocean over a six-day period.
• Calibrating or validating ocean model simulations for the region and time period using historical in-situ data.
• Researching oceanographic data collection methods and the characteristics of Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instruments.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known, documented standard (NODC C128 format).
• Provides precise temporal coverage for a specific research cruise (June 16-21, 1969).
• Temperature measurements are recorded at a consistent, uniform depth interval (5 meters).

Limitations

• Key technical details are missing, including row count, file size, and specific column names.
• Instrument limitation restricts observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, capturing only the upper ocean.
• Platforms disagree on the last updated date (datagov lists 2026-03 05, nasa_earthdata lists 1969-06-21).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from the USNS Thomas Washington research vessel.

Time Range

1969-06-16 to 1969-06-21

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:28:49.342551

Geography

South Pacific Ocean