HMS Ulster Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles

Bathythermograph (MBT) data from HMS Ulster provides temperature-depth profiles for the Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean. The dataset covers a six-month period from September 1957 to March 1958 and was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format. It captures the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical sea surface temperature and subsurface thermal structure in the North Atlantic.
• Studying seasonal temperature changes in the upper ocean (0-285m) over a six-month cruise.
• Validating or calibrating ocean model simulations for the late 1950s using point profile data.
• Researching the methodology and data format of early mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments.

Strengths

• Data is formatted to a known standard (NODC C128 format) ensuring consistent structure.
• Provides a specific temporal coverage from 1957-09-09 to 1958-03-13.
• Records temperature at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating analysis.
• Cross-platform presence on government data portals signals archival importance.

Limitations

• Key metadata conflicts: row count, column names, and exact license are unknown across all sources.
• Limited to the upper ocean, with a maximum observation depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Represents a single vessel's cruise over a limited six-month time period.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), from HMS Ulster cruise.

Collection Method

Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC.

Time Range

1957-09 09 to 1958-03-13

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:39:03.431833

Geography

Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean