Historical Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from YAQUINA Cruise

Mechanical bathythermograph data from the YAQUINA research vessel in the North Pacific Ocean, capturing temperature-depth profiles of the upper ocean layers. The dataset covers a one-week cruise from September 21 to 27, 1969, and was processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center into the standard C128 format. Each observation includes cruise information, date, position, and time, with temperature recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the thermal structure of the upper ocean (up to ~285m) using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying short-term oceanic variability during a September 1969 cruise using date, time, and position columns.
• Providing a historical baseline for comparison with modern upper-ocean temperature profiles.

Strengths

• Data is processed to a documented standard format (NODC C128), ensuring consistency.
• Provides precise temporal coverage for a specific research cruise from 1969-09-21 to 1969-09-27.
• Temperature measurements are recorded at uniform 5-meter depth intervals, facilitating analysis.

Limitations

• Key metadata like row count, column names, file size, and license are unavailable across all sources.
• Instrument maximum depth is approximately 285 meters, limiting analysis to the upper ocean only.
• Sources conflict on the 'last updated' date, with one showing 2026-03 05 and another 1969-09-27.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally from NODC.

Collection Method

Collected via mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument from the YAQUINA vessel.

Time Range

1969-09-21 to 1969-09-27

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:02:44.834498

Geography

North Pacific Ocean (YAQUINA cruise)