North Atlantic Ocean Temperature Profiles from USNS Maurice Rose

North Atlantic Ocean temperature-depth profiles were collected by the USNS Maurice Rose using mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments. The dataset spans from May 19, 1959, to December 5, 1965, and was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format. It contains pairs of temperature and depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, useful for studying the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers.

Use Cases

• Analyzing seasonal and interannual variability of near-surface ocean temperatures in the North Atlantic using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying the vertical thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m depth) for climate research.
• Validating historical ocean reanalysis models with in-situ temperature profile observations from the 1960s.
• Investigating cruise-specific oceanographic conditions by linking temperature data with reported cruise information, date, position, and time.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known, documented standard (NODC C128 format), ensuring consistency.
• Provides a multi-year time series from 1959 to 1965 for studying temporal changes.
• Includes core metadata (cruise info, date, position, time) for each observation, enabling spatiotemporal analysis.

Limitations

• Maximum observation depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the ocean's upper layers only.
• Specific data volume (row count, file size) and column details are not provided by any source, obscuring dataset scale.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between sources (2026-04-01 on Data.gov vs. 1965-12-05 on NASA Earthdata), creating provenance uncertainty.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments deployed from the USNS Maurice Rose.

Time Range

1959-05-19 to 1965-12-05

Freshness

2026-04-01 14:55:40.909530

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean