Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from USCGC Glacier

Temperature-depth profiles from the upper ocean layers collected by the USCGC Glacier using Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instruments. The dataset covers a decade of observations across major ocean basins from 1956 to 1967, processed into the NODC standard C128 format. Each record provides paired temperature and depth measurements at uniform 5-meter intervals.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical upper ocean thermal structure using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying decadal temperature trends in specific ocean basins using cruise date and location data.
• Calibrating or validating ocean mixed-layer models with instrument-specific profile data.
• Mapping the spatial distribution of upper ocean properties using reported position coordinates.

Strengths

• Covers a significant time range of over 10 years (1956-09 19 to 1967-04-17).
• Provides standardized data processed to the NODC C128 format, ensuring consistency.
• Includes observations from multiple major ocean basins, offering broad spatial coverage.

Limitations

• Instrument maximum depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the upper ocean only.
• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and license are not provided by any source.
• Sources disagree on the 'last updated' date (2026-04-01 vs. 1967-04-17), creating uncertainty about maintenance.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Data collected using Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instruments and processed by NODC to the C128 format.

Time Range

1956-09-19 to 1967-04-17

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:09:42.361586

Geography

Caribbean Sea, Coral Sea, Great Australian Bight, Indian Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean, South Pacific Ocean, Southern Ocean, Tasman Sea