USS Colahan Bathythermograph Profiles from the Western Pacific

285 meters is the maximum depth for temperature observations in this dataset. It contains mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) profiles collected by the USS Colahan across the East China Sea, Japan Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, and South China Sea. Data was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format, covering the period from January 1954 to September 1958.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to 285m) using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying spatial and temporal variability of sea surface and subsurface temperatures across multiple western Pacific seas.
• Validating or supplementing historical oceanographic models with cruise-based profile data from the 1950s.
• Examining cruise-specific oceanographic conditions, as each observation includes cruise information, date, position, and time.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring a consistent structure for analysis.
• Temperature data is recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating direct comparisons.
• Covers a multi-year time range (1954-1958) across five distinct oceanographic regions.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are not provided by any source.
• The mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument limits observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, restricting analysis to the upper ocean.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), via the USS Colahan.

Collection Method

Collected using mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1954-01-01 to 1958-09-11

Freshness

2026-03-05 22:34:01.105105

Geography

East China Sea, Japan Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, South China Sea