Historical MBT Ocean Temperature Profiles from USS Hopewell

Bathythermograph (MBT) data records temperature-depth profiles from the USS Hopewell's cruises in the East China Sea, North Pacific Ocean, and Philippine Sea. The dataset, processed by the NODC into the standard C128 format, contains observations spanning from August 1952 to March 1960. It provides paired temperature-depth values at uniform 5-meter intervals, useful for studying the upper ocean's thermal structure.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to 285m) using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying historical ocean temperature variability in the East China Sea, North Pacific, and Philippine Sea.
• Validating or supplementing regional oceanographic models with in-situ temperature profile data.
• Investigating cruise-specific ocean conditions by linking temperature data with reported date, position, and time.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known, consistent standard (NODC C128 format).
• Provides a multi-year temporal record from 1952 to 1960.
• Covers a specific geographic area across three major ocean regions.

Limitations

• Key technical details are missing, including row count, column names, and data size.
• The MBT instrument's maximum depth of ~285m limits analysis to the ocean's upper layers only.
• Conflicting or unclear metadata exists across platforms regarding license, author, and update frequency.

Provenance

Source

NOAA_NCEI (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Centers for Environmental Information).

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument on the USS Hopewell and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1952-08-11 to 1960-03-18

Freshness

2026-04-01 14:59:04.424829

Geography

East China Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea