USS John A. Bole Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles

Bathythermograph (MBT) data from USS John A. Bole provides temperature-depth profiles for the North Pacific Ocean and Philippine Sea. The dataset covers an eight-year period from October 1951 to January 1959, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the standard C128 format. It contains pairs of temperature and depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals, focusing on the upper 285 meters of the ocean.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical temperature-depth profiles in the North Pacific and Philippine Sea.
• Studying the thermal structure and variability of the upper ocean (0-285m) over an eight-year period.
• Correlating cruise information, date, position, and time with observed temperature data.
• Investigating seasonal or interannual changes in near-surface ocean temperatures from the 1950s.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a standardized NODC format (C128), ensuring consistent structure.
• Provides a continuous eight-year time series from 1951 to 1959 for longitudinal analysis.
• Temperature data is recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating direct comparisons.

Limitations

• Key technical details like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable.
• Instrument limitation restricts observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.
• Platforms show a conflict on the 'last updated' date (2026 vs. 1959), indicating potential metadata issues.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected using mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments aboard the USS John A. Bole and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1951-10 09 to 1959-01-04

Freshness

2026-04-01 14:53:33.329124

Geography

North Pacific Ocean and Philippine Sea