Background

The Maritime Environment Information Centre at the UKHO has a continuing policy to populate its oceanographic databases from all available sources. One of these sources is the UK Navy’s deployment of EXpendable BathyThermographs (XBT). The navy’s use of these probes serves to collect sea temperature profiles for operational use. The data collected has served to enhance the UKHO’s Maritime Environment Data Store.

Data Issue

The data on this CD-ROM represents 5 years (1990 - 1995) of UK Navy XBT observations. The CD-ROM contains 27573 observations from operational/survey vessels and aircraft. Previously to 1990 the data was released on a CD-ROM “Royal Naval Bathythermograph Data (1947 – 1990) Version 2.0 October 1994 (NP660)” to the oceanographic community.

Data Summary

Sources

· XBT data from UK navy operational and survey vessels (26600 observations).

· XBT data from military aircraft (AXBT – 289 observations).

· XBT data from UK navy chartered vessels (684 observations).

Instrumentation

XBT (T4/6) - 1584

XBT (T7) - 23199

XBT (T5) - 2501

AXBT - 289

Annual distribution

1990 6792

1991 3866

1992 4104

1993 4436

1994 4261

1995 4114

Monthly distribution

01 2014

02 2980

03 2951

04 2149

05 3038

06 2794

07 1997

08 1266

09 2289

10 2770

11 2104

12 1221