Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from USS Alfred A. Cunningham

1952 to 1958 temperature-depth profiles collected by the USS Alfred A. Cunningham using Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instruments. The dataset covers the North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, South China Sea, South Pacific Ocean, and Tasman Sea. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical upper ocean thermal structure using temperature-depth value pairs.
• Studying spatial and temporal variability of sea surface temperatures and subsurface layers in the Pacific region.
• Validating or calibrating ocean model simulations for the 1950s using instrument-calibrated profile data.
• Researching cruise-based oceanographic observations from a specific naval vessel over a multi-year period.

Strengths

• Provides a consistent 6.5-year time series from 1952-02-01 to 1958-07-21.
• Data is processed to a standardized format (NODC C128) ensuring structural consistency.
• Each observation includes cruise information, date, position, and time metadata.
• Temperature data is recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating analysis.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• MBT instrument maximum depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the upper ocean only.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT) instruments aboard the USS Alfred A. Cunningham and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1952-02-01 to 1958-07-21

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:41:26.005565

Geography

North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, South China Sea, South Pacific Ocean, Tasman Sea