USS Maury Bathythermograph Profiles from the North Pacific

Bathythermograph (MBT) data from the USS Maury provides temperature-depth profiles for the upper ocean layers in the North Pacific Ocean. The dataset covers a specific cruise from January 13 to 19, 1967, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into its standard C128 format. Temperature observations are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, with a maximum instrument depth of approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean layers using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying short-term oceanic variability during a specific January 1967 cruise in the North Pacific.
• Investigating historical oceanographic conditions using data formatted to the NODC C128 standard.
• Correlating temperature profiles with reported cruise information, date, position, and time for each observation.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a known standard format (NODC C128) ensuring structured temperature-depth pairs.
• Provides precise temporal coverage for a specific 7-day cruise in January 1967.
• Observations are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating consistent analysis.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA Earthdata signals recognized archival importance.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, column names, file size, and license are unavailable from all sources.
• The mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument limits observations to a maximum depth of ~285m, restricting analysis to the upper ocean.
• Sources conflict on the 'last updated' date, with one showing 2026-03-05 and another showing the original 1967-01 19 data date.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally from USS Maury cruise.

Collection Method

Temperature-depth profiles gathered using a mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1967-01-13 to 1967-01-19

Freshness

2026-03 05 22:42:59.386697

Geography

North Pacific Ocean