Historical North Pacific Ocean Temperature Profiles from USS William C. Lawe

Two years of mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) data collected by the USS William C. Lawe in the North Pacific Ocean from September 1947 to September 1949. The dataset, processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the C128 standard format, consists of temperature-depth profile pairs for the upper ocean layers. It is provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical sea surface temperature and subsurface thermal structure in the North Pacific.
• Studying seasonal or interannual variability in the ocean's mixed layer from 1947 to 1949.
• Validating oceanographic models or reanalysis products against mid-20th century observations.
• Researching the methodology and data characteristics of early mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments.

Strengths

• Provides a continuous two-year time series from September 1947 to September 1949.
• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring a consistent structure for temperature-depth pairs.
• Each observation includes associated cruise information, date, geographic position, and time.

Limitations

• MBT observations are limited to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, capturing only the upper ocean thermal structure.
• Specific column names, row counts, and dataset size are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on the 'last updated' metadata, with one listing 2026-04-01 and another listing the final data date of 1949-09-21.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument aboard the USS William C. Lawe and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1947-09-03 to 1949-09-21

Freshness

2026-04-01 14:59:20.997276

Geography

North Pacific Ocean