Bathythermograph (MBT), ocean station data from ARA CAPITAN CANEPA, F. V. HUNT, and others in the Bay of Bengal, Bay of Biscay, and others from 1964-08-24 to 1971-11-17 (NCEI Accession 7100000)

This dataset includes bathythermograph (MBT), ocean station data from ARA CAPITAN CANEPA, F. V. HUNT, FUJI, JAMES COOK, NOAA Ship Discoverer, SANDS, UNKNOWN PLATFORMS OF CANADA, UNKNOWN PLATFORMS OF NEW ZEALAND, USNS Kane, and USNS Silas Bent in the Bay of Bengal, Bay of Biscay, Caribbean Sea, Indian Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, Philippine Sea, South Atlantic Ocean, South China Sea, South Pacific Ocean, Southern Ocean, and Tasman Sea from 1964-08-24 to 1971-11-17.

Data has been processed by NODC to the NODC standard Bathythermograph (MBT) (C128) and Ocean Station (C100) formats.

The Oceanographic Station Data (C100) format contains physical-chemical oceanographic data recorded at discrete depth levels. Most of the observations were made using multi-bottle Nansen casts or other types of water samplers. A small amount (about 5 percent) were obtained using electronic CTD (conductivity-temperature-depth) or STD (salinity-temperature-depth) recorders. The CTD/STD data were reported to NODC at depth levels equivalent to Nansen cast data, however, and have been processed and stored the same as the Nansen data. Cruise information (e.g., ship, country, institution), position, date, and time, and reported for each station. The principal measured parameters and temperature and salinity, but dissolved oxygen, phosphate, total phosphorus, silicate, nitrate, nitrite, and pH may be reported. Meteorological conditions at the time of the cast (e.g., air temperature and pressure, wind, waves) may also be reported, as well as auxiliary data such as water color (Forel-Ule scale), water transparency (Secchi disk depth), and depth to bottom. Values of density (sigma-t) sound velocity, and dynamic depth anomaly are computed from measured parameters. Each station contains the measurements taken at the observed depth levels, but also includes data values interpolated to a set of standard depth levels.

The C128 format is used for temperature-depth profile data obtained using the mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument. The maximum depth of MBT observations is approximately 285 m. Therefore, MBT data are useful only in studying the thermal structure of the upper layers of the ocean. Cruise information, date, position, and time are reported for each observation. The data record comprises pairs of temperature-depth values. Temperature data in this file are recorded at uniform 5 m depth intervals.