Temperature profile data collected using BT and XBT casts in the Gulf of Mexico from NOAA Ship RESEARCHER from 1982-05-12 to 1982-05-17 (NCEI Accession 8400122)

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.