Temperature calibration of expendable bathythermographs

A non-destructive temperature calibration system for expendable bathythermographs (XBT) is described. A transfer standard technique has been used to estimate XBT thermistor probe-to-probe temperature variability. One-point calibration results suggest that a standard deviation of 0.025°C is typical at 10°C. Additional calibration data from nine XBT thermistors suggest that probe-to-probe temperature variability is largest at 0°C (ca. 0.03°C) and decreases uniformly to a minimum at 30°C (ca. 0.01°C).