Gulf of Mexico Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles, 1960

From January 5 to January 25, 1960, this dataset contains mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) observations of ocean temperature versus depth. Data from various small Navy vessels in the Gulf of Mexico were processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C128 format. Each record includes cruise information, date, position, time, and paired temperature-depth values recorded at uniform 5-meter intervals down to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean based on paired temperature-depth profiles.
• Studying historical oceanographic conditions in the Gulf of Mexico using cruise, date, position, and time metadata.
• Calibrating or validating ocean models with in-situ temperature observations from a specific time period.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a documented NODC standard format (C128), ensuring consistency.
• Provides precise temporal coverage for a focused three-week period in January 1960.
• Cross-platform presence on data.gov and NASA Earthdata signals its importance and curation.

Limitations

• Column names and exact row counts are not provided in the available metadata, limiting immediate usability.
• The instrument's maximum depth of ~285 meters restricts analysis to the upper ocean layers only.
• Metadata on license, author, and exact file size is missing across all sources.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally from various small Navy vessels.

Collection Method

Observations gathered using mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instruments and processed by NODC.

Time Range

1960-01-05 to 1960-01-25

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:15:04.764315

Geography

Gulf of Mexico