Temperature profile collected using XBT casts in the North/South Atlantic Ocean from the NOAA Ship RESEARCHER from 05 November 1977 to 13 February 1979 (NODC Accession 7900324)

Temperature profile were collected using BT and XBT casts from the NOAA Ship RESEARCHER in North/South Atlantic Ocean from 05 November 1977 to 13 February 1979. Data were collected by the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, Florida with support from the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) project. Data were processed by NODC to the NODC standard Universal Bathythermograph Output (UBT) format. Full format description is available from NODC at www.nodc.noaa.gov/General/NODC-Archive/bt.html.

The UBT file format is used for temperature-depth profile data obtained using expendable bathythermograph (XBT) instruments. Standard XBTs can obtain profiles at depths of about 450 or 760 m. With special instruments, measurements can be obtained to 1830 m. Cruise information, position, date, and time are reported for each observation. The data record comprises pairs of temperature-depth values. Unlike the MBT data file, in which temperature values are recorded at uniform 5m intervals, the XBT Data File contains temperature values at non-uniform depths. These depths are at a minimum number of points ("inflection points") required to record the temperature curve to an acceptable degree of accuracy. On output, however, the user may request temperature values either at inflection points or interpolated to uniform depth increments.