North Pacific Ocean Temperature Profiles from the THRASHER Expedition

North Pacific Ocean temperature-depth profiles collected by the THRASHER vessel using a Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) from March to October 1958. The dataset contains pairs of temperature-depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format. It is published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyzing seasonal thermal structure changes in the North Pacific upper ocean (using temperature-depth pairs and date).
• Studying the spatial distribution of near-surface ocean temperatures (using position and temperature data).
• Calibrating or validating ocean model simulations for the 1958 period (using time-stamped, geolocated profile data).
• Investigating instrument characteristics and data standards for historical MBT records (using the documented C128 format).

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known, documented standard (NODC C128 format).
• Provides a focused temporal record from a single research vessel over a 7-month period (1958 03-24 to 1958-10-17).
• Temperature measurements are recorded at a consistent, high-resolution vertical interval (5 meters).

Limitations

• Instrument limits data to the upper ocean only, with a maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Key metadata such as exact row count, file size, and license are not provided across the listed platforms.
• The dataset is historical, with the last data collection in 1958, limiting analysis of modern conditions.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from the THRASHER vessel and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1958-03-24 to 1958-10-17

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:19:38.599323

Geography

North Pacific Ocean