North Atlantic Ocean Temperature Profiles from USNS Maurice Rose, 1959

June to August 1959 data from the USNS Maurice Rose cruise in the North Atlantic Ocean, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC). The dataset contains temperature-depth profiles from mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments, formatted to the NODC standard C128. It is published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical temperature gradients in the upper 285 meters of the North Atlantic Ocean.
• Studying cruise-specific oceanographic conditions by linking temperature-depth pairs to reported date, position, and time.
• Investigating uniform-depth temperature sampling at 5-meter intervals for model validation.
• Examining the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers using mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) observations.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized NODC format (C128), ensuring consistent structure.
• Provides a focused temporal snapshot from a specific 1959 research cruise.
• Includes core metadata for each observation: cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Key technical details are unknown: total row count, specific column names, and file size.
• The maximum observation depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the upper ocean only.
• Sources conflict on the 'last updated' date (2026-03-05 vs. 1959-08-04), creating uncertainty about metadata maintenance.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC.

Time Range

1959-06-12 to 1959-08-04

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:08:19.596036

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean