An XBT is an expendable free-fall temperature probe that provides a profile of measured temperature against depth calculated from a fall-rate model. For example, two popular XBT models are the T-5 and T-7 probes from Sippican. More information is available from Lockheed Martin Sippican at URL: http://www.sippican.com/.
Sample XBT .edf header for SOIREE:
// This is an MK12 EXPORT DATA FILE (EDF)
//
Date of Launch : 02/06/99
Time of Launch : 19:38:32
Sequence # : 32
Latitude : -61.413
Longitude : 141.740
Serial # :
//
// Here are the contents of the memo fields.
//
//
// Here is some probe information for this drop
//
Probe Type : T-7
Terminal Depth : 800 m
Depth Coefficient 1 : .00216
Depth Coefficient 2 : 6.472
//
Raw Data Filename : T7$00032.RDF
//
Display Units : METRIC
//
// And here are the depth(M)/temperature(C) pairs...
//