USS Lowry Historical Ocean Temperature Profiles 1954-1961

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the USS Lowry provides temperature-depth profiles for the upper ocean layers in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans. The dataset contains observations processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the standard C128 format, with profiles recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals. Data collection spanned over seven years from February 1954 to September 1961.

Use Cases

• Analyzing thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) using temperature-depth value pairs.
• Studying spatial and temporal variability of sea surface temperatures across the North Atlantic and North Pacific.
• Correlating cruise information, date, position, and time with observed temperature profiles for specific voyages.
• Providing a historical baseline for comparing modern upper-ocean heat content measurements.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a consistent standard format (NODC C128), ensuring structural uniformity.
• Provides a multi-year time series from 1954 to 1961, capturing decadal-scale ocean conditions.
• Spatial coverage includes two major ocean basins: the North Atlantic and North Pacific.

Limitations

• Instrument limitation: maximum depth is approximately 285 meters, restricting analysis to the upper ocean only.
• Conflicting metadata: one platform lists a last updated date of 2026-04-01, which is implausible for historical data collection ending in 1961.
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC.

Time Range

1954-02-02 to 1961-09-13

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:07:03.496475

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean and North Pacific Ocean