USS Gregory Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles 1953-1960

Temperature-depth profile data collected by the USS Gregory using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) in the North Pacific Ocean and Philippine Sea. The dataset contains observations from November 1953 to May 1960, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format. It provides a record of the thermal structure of the ocean's upper layers to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical temperature gradients in the upper ocean (0-285m) using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying seasonal or interannual thermal variability in the North Pacific and Philippine Sea regions using date and position columns.
• Calibrating or validating models of upper-ocean heat content based on instrument-specific (MBT) profile data.
• Investigating cruise-based spatial sampling patterns for historical oceanographic surveys.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural consistency.
• Provides a multi-year time series from 1953 to 1960 for studying temporal changes.
• Includes core metadata for each observation: cruise information, date, position, and time.

Limitations

• Key technical details are missing: exact row count, column names, and file size are unknown.
• Instrument limitation: MBT data is only useful for the upper ocean, with a maximum depth of ~285m.
• Data resolution is fixed at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, which may limit fine-scale analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce.

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from the USS Gregory and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1953-11-22 to 1960-05-18

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:23:02.307037

Geography

North Pacific Ocean and Philippine Sea