Philippine Sea Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1969

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data captures temperature-depth profiles in the Philippine Sea from March 11-13, 1969. The dataset, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the C128 standard format, consists of paired temperature and depth measurements recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals. It was collected by unknown U.S. platforms and is managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical temperature gradient in the upper 285 meters of the Philippine Sea.
• Studying short-term thermal variability over a three-day observation period in March 1969.
• Validating or supplementing models of upper ocean heat content for a specific geographic region.
• Investigating the performance and data characteristics of the historical Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instrument.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring a consistent structure for temperature-depth pairs.
• Measurements are recorded at a uniform 5-meter depth interval, facilitating straightforward vertical analysis.
• Each observation includes associated metadata such as cruise information, date, geographic position, and time.

Limitations

• The dataset is limited to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, restricting analysis to the ocean's upper layers.
• Key metadata is missing or conflicting: row count, file size, column names, and specific platform identities are unknown.
• Temporal coverage is extremely brief, spanning only three days in 1969.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected using Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instruments from unknown U.S. platforms and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1969-03-11 to 1969-03-13

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:13:43.080729

Geography

Philippine Sea