French oceanographic cruises G. Reverdin, F. Marin • French oceanographic cruises with XBTs launched ship steaming arond 10-12 knots between two CTDs typically 20-40 km apart from XBT. The launch is done manually from a position fairly low above water, typically near the aft of the ship or along the side (a little higher on DTX, seems to be) • There seems to be generally no documentation on the equation used in the French archives (‘unknown’). And for the recent ones, different choices have been done on the total depth of reported data (and no correlation with the equation used) • Comparisons of XBT T(3m) with intake temperatures have not been done, but this is possible in a large number of cases. • Cruises are in the tropical Oceans mostly (from 1979, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1991, some of the PIRATA cruises since 1997, EGEE cruises, 2005-2007); also mid-latitude North Atlantic (Semaphore, 1993; POMME 2000-2001 among others)