Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles from USS Brinkley Bass

1951-10-15 to 1960-03-16 comprises bathythermograph (MBT) data collected by the USS Brinkley Bass in the North Pacific Ocean. The dataset contains temperature-depth profile pairs recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing thermal structure of the upper ocean layers using temperature-depth pairs.
• Studying historical ocean temperature variability in the North Pacific using geospatial and temporal data.
• Calibrating or validating oceanographic models with standardized, cruise-based profile data.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known, standardized format (NODC C128), ensuring consistency.
• Provides a multi-year temporal record from 1951 to 1960 for longitudinal analysis.
• Includes precise metadata for each observation: cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Key metadata conflicts exist: datagov lists a last updated date of 2026-04-01, while nasa_earthdata shows 1960-03-16.
• Critical details like row count, file size, and specific column names are unknown across all platforms.
• Instrument limitation restricts data usefulness to the upper ~285 meters of the ocean.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1951-10-15 to 1960-03-16

Freshness

2026-04-01 14:57:01.038392

Geography

North Pacific Ocean