USS MARYSVILLE Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1969 PARKA Project

Eighty-six temperature-depth profiles were collected using expendable bathythermographs (XBTs) from the USS MARYSVILLE during a November-December 1969 cruise for the PARKA project. The data was processed by the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office and the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard C116 format. This dataset captures ocean thermal structure from a specific naval operation in the late 1960s.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical ocean temperature structure using paired temperature-depth values.
• Studying historical naval data collection methods and the PARKA project's operational context.
• Comparing inflection-point based profile recording against uniform interval methods like MBT.
• Investigating temperature profiles to depths potentially up to 1830 meters from special instruments.

Strengths

• Contains 86 validated profiles from a focused 19-day naval cruise in 1969.
• Data was processed to the NODC standard C116 format, ensuring a known structure.
• Profiles record temperature at inflection points, efficiently defining the temperature curve.

Limitations

• Exact column names, row counts, and file size are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date (1969-12 05 vs. 2026-04-01), indicating unclear provenance maintenance.
• The spatial coverage (geography) is not explicitly stated, only implied by the ship's operations.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office (via Mr. K. W. Lackie), processed by NODC/NOAA NCEI.

Collection Method

Expendable bathythermograph (XBT) instruments deployed from USS MARYSVILLE, data transmitted via radio message formats BATHY/HISTD.

Time Range

1969-11-15 to 1969-12 05

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:03:44.791033

Geography

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