South Pacific Ocean Temperature Profiles from HMNZS TUI Cruise

April 19 to May 9, 1972, temperature-depth profiles from the HMNZS TUI cruise in the South Pacific Ocean, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC). The dataset contains pairs of temperature-depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters. It is formatted to the NODC standard C128 format for Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) data.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (0-285m) using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying spatial and temporal variability of sea surface temperatures from cruise-track data.
• Historical calibration or validation of ocean model outputs for the South Pacific region.
• Research on ocean heat content changes in a specific geographical area during April-May 1972.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized format (NODC C128), ensuring consistency.
• Provides precise temporal coverage for a 21-day cruise in 1972.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating analysis.
• Cross-platform presence (Data.gov, NASA Earthdata) indicates recognized importance and curation.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, column names, file size, and license are unavailable across all sources.
• Limited to the upper ocean (max ~285m depth), excluding deeper thermal structure.
• The dataset's age (1972) may limit direct comparison with modern high-resolution sensor data.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally from HMNZS TUI cruise.

Collection Method

Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC.

Time Range

1972-04-19 to 1972-05-09

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:22:03.950671

Geography

South Pacific Ocean