Temperature profile data collected using XBT and BT casts in the North/South Atlantic Ocean and North/South Pacific Ocean from NOAA Ship RESEARCHER and other platforms from 1987-01-26 to 1987-12-15 (NCEI Accession 8800078)

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.