The World Ocean Database (WOD) is the world's largest publicly available uniform format quality controlled ocean profile dataset. Ocean profile data are sets of measurements of an ocean variable vs. depth at a single geographic location within a short (minutes to hours) temporal period in some portion of the water column from the surface to the bottom. To be considered a profile for the WOD, there must be more than a single depth/variable pair. Multiple profiles at the same location from the same set of instruments is an oceanographic cast. Ocean variables in the WOD include temperature, salinity, oxygen, nutrients, tracers, and biological variables such as plankton and chlorophyll. Quality control procedures are documented and performed on each cast and the results are included as flags on each measurement. The WOD contains the data on the originally measured depth levels (observed) and also interpolated to standard depth levels to present a more uniform set of iso-surfaces for oceanographic and climate work. The source of the WOD is more than 20,000 separate archived datasets contributed by institutions, project, government agencies, and individual investigators from the United States and around the world. Each dataset is available in its original form in the National Centers for Environmental Information data archives. All datasets are converted to the same standard format, checked for duplication within the WOD, and assigned quality flags based on objective tests. Additional subjective flags are set upon calculation of ocean climatological mean fields which make up the World Ocean Atlas (WOA) series. The WOD consists of periodic major releases and quarterly updates to those releases. Each major release is associated with a concurrent release of a WOA release, and contains final quality control flags used in the WOA, which includes manual as well as automated steps. Each quarterly update release includes additional historical and recent data and preliminary quality control. The latest major release was WOD 2018 (WOD18), which includes nearly 16 million oceanographic casts, from the second voyage of Captain Cook (1772) to the modern Argo floats (end of 2017). The WOD presents data in netCDF ragged array format following the Climate and Forecast (CF) conventions for ease of use mindful of space limitations.

World Ocean Database 2009 (WOD09) is a collection of scientifically quality-controlled ocean profile and plankton data that includes measurements of temperature, salinity, oxygen, phosphate, nitrate, silicate, chlorophyll, alkalinity, pH, pCO2, TCO2, Tritium, delta-13Carbon, delta-14Carbon, delta-18Oxygen, Freons, Helium, delta-3Helium, Neon, and plankton. A discussion of data sources is provided. Data are both historical and modern with the most recent data from 2008.

World Ocean Database 2009 is an update of World Ocean Database 2005. It expands on the older version by including new variables, data types, and additional historical, as well as modern, observations. It contains all data from earliest observation through our collection as of Dec. 31, 2009. The 2009 database, updated from the 2005 edition, is significantly larger providing approximately 9.1 million temperature profiles and 3.5 million salinity reports. The 2009 database also captures 29 categories of scientific information from the oceans, including oxygen levels and chemical tracers, plus information on gases and isotopes that can be used to trace the movement of ocean currents. An online version of the World Ocean Database is updated quarterly.

DVD-ROM Disc 1 contains:

OSD, Ocean Station Data
Low & High-resolution CTD/XCTD, Conductivity-Temperature-Depth data
Plankton data

DVD-ROM Disc 2 contains:

MBT, Mechanical / Digital / Micro Bathythermograph data
XBT, Expendable Bathythermograph data
SUR, Surface-only data
APB, Autonomous Pinniped data
MRB, Moored buoy data
PFL, Profiling float data
DRB, Drifting buoy data
UOR, Undulating Oceanographic Recorder data
GLD, Glider data

This DVD contains six directories named:

CODES (contains codes associated with the secondary header, biological header, and taxa data);
DATA (contains yearly sorted data, dating from 1773 though 2009);
DOC (contains the documentation);
ODV (contains the Ocean Data View software for viewing the WOD09 data, developed by Dr. Reiner Schiltzer, AWI. This software will decompress selected files and offers users several options for viewing the WOD09 data. ODV works on PCs only);
PROGRAMS (contains source code and executables for programs which are examples of how to read the data and can be used to reformat the data into comma-delimited or space-delimited forms);
UTILS (contains the gzip utility for uncompressing WOD09 data files).

The World Ocean Database DVDs are currently available via the NCEI Online Store at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/nespls/olstore.prodspecific?prodnum=5035

The World Ocean Database 2005 (WOD05) DVD contains data, documentation, programs, and utilities for the latest release of this product. Data include 7.9 million temperature profiles, and 2.7 million salinity profiles, plus data for 27 other in situ measurements, including oxygen, nutrients and chemical tracers, chlorophyll, carbon variables, and plankton.

Data on the DVD are organized by instrument type. Within each instrument directory, the data are stored by year. Data are stored in ASCII format, and gzip compressed. Utilities are provided under the directory UTILS for both UNIX and DOS operating systems.

This DVD contains six directories named: CODES (contains codes associated with the secondary header, biological header, and taxa data) DATA (contains yearly sorted data, dating from 1773 though 2005) DOC (contains the documentation) ODV (contains the Ocean Data View software for viewing the WOD05 data, developed by Dr. Reiner Schiltzer, AWI. This software will decompress selected files and offers users several options for viewing the WOD05 data. ODV works on PCs only). PROGRAMS (contains source code and executables for programs which are examples of how to read the data and can be used to reformat the data into comma-delimited or space-delimited forms). UTILS (contains the gzip utility for uncompressing WOD05 data files.)

The World Ocean Database 2005 DVDs are no longer available via the NODC Online Store.

World Ocean Atlas 2018 (WOA18) is a set of objectively analyzed (one degree grid and quarter degree grid) climatological fields of in situ temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, Apparent Oxygen Utilization (AOU), percent oxygen saturation, phosphate, silicate, and nitrate at standard depth levels for annual, seasonal, and monthly compositing periods for the World Ocean. Quarter degree fields are for temperature and salinity only. It also includes associated statistical fields of observed oceanographic profile data interpolated to standard depth levels on quarter degree, one degree, and five degree grids. Temperature and salinity fields are available for six decades (1955-1964, 1965-1974, 1975-1984, 1985-1994, 1995-2004, and 2005-2017) an average of all decades representing the period 1955-2017, as well as a thirty year "climate normal" period 1981-2010. Oxygen fields (as well as AOU and percent oxygen saturation) are available using all quality controlled data 1960-2017, nutrient fields using all quality controlled data from the entire sampling period 1878-2017. This accession is a product generated by the National Centers for Environmental Information's (NCEI) Ocean Climate Laboratory Team. The analyses are derived from the NCEI World Ocean Database 2018.

World Ocean Database 2009 (WOD09) is a collection of scientifically quality-controlled ocean profile and plankton data that includes measurements of temperature, salinity, oxygen, phosphate, nitrate, silicate, chlorophyll, alkalinity, pH, pCO2, TCO2, Tritium, delta-13Carbon, delta-14Carbon, delta-18Oxygen, Freons, Helium, delta-3Helium, Neon, and plankton. A discussion of data sources is provided. Data are both historical and modern with the most recent data from 2008.World Ocean Database 2009 is an update of World Ocean Database 2005. It expands on the older version by including new variables, data types, and additional historical, as well as modern, observations. It contains all data from earliest observation through our collection as of Dec. 31, 2009. The 2009 database, updated from the 2005 edition, is significantly larger providing approximately 9.1 million temperature profiles and 3.5 million salinity reports. The 2009 database also captures 29 categories of scientific information from the oceans, including oxygen levels and chemical tracers, plus information on gases and isotopes that can be used to trace the movement of ocean currents. An online version of the World Ocean Database is updated quarterly. This subset of the World Ocean Database contains the biological observations only.

This data set includes subsurface ocean profiles of temperature, salinity, oxygen, nutrients, ocean tracers, optics, and biology (chlorophyll, plankton) taken from 1772 to 2025 in the global ocean using bottles, CTD, XBT, MBT, profiling floats, moored buoys, ice drifting buoys, gliders, towed profilers, and instrumented pinnipeds. This data set was prepared at NCEI in CF compliant netCDF ragged array format under the direction of the IQuOD project. The IQuOD (International Quality-controlled Ocean Database) effort is being organized by the oceanographic community, and includes experts in data quality and management, climate modelers and the broader climate-related community. The primary focus of IQuOD is to produce and freely distribute the highest quality and complete single ocean profile repository along with (intelligent) metadata and assigned uncertainties for use in ocean climate research applications. This goal will be achieved by developing and implementing an internationally agreed framework. IQuOD v0.1 is a preliminary data set which includes uncertainties on each temperature measurement and intelligent metadata for identifying critical missing information.

The World Ocean Database 1998 (WOD98) is comprised of five CD-ROMs containing profile and plankton/biomass data in compressed format. WOD98-01 through WOD98-04 contain observed level data, WOD98-05 contains all the standard level data. World Ocean Database 1998 (WOD98) expands on World Ocean Atlas 1994 (WOA94) by including the additional variables nitrite, pH, alkalinity, chlorophyll, and plankton, as well as all available metadata and meteorology. WOD98 is an International Year of the Ocean product. WOD98-01 Observed Level Data; North Atlantic 30° N-90° N; WOD98-02 Observed Level Data; North Atlantic 0°-30° N, South Atlantic; WOD98-03 Observed Level Data; North Pacific 20° N-90° N; WOD98-01 Observed Level Data; North Pacific 0°-20° N; South Pacific, Indian; WOD98-01 Standard Level Data for all Ocean Basins. Discs may be created by burning the appropriate .iso file(s) in the data/0-data/disc_image/ directory to blank CD-ROM media using standard CD-ROM authoring software. Software that was developed or provided with this NODC Standard Product may be included in the disc_image/ directory as part of a disc image, but executable software that was developed or provided with this NODC Standard Product has been excluded from the disc_contents/ directory.

This National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) archival information package (AIP) contains a product generated by NCEI-- the Global Ocean Currents Database (GOCD). It is derived from NCEI AIPs that hold in situ ocean current data from a diverse range of instruments, collection protocols, processing methods, and data storage formats. For acceptance into the GOCD, the data must have sufficient quality control and thorough documentation. The GODC merges the variety of original formats into the NCEI standard network common data form (NetCDF) format. From the shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler sets, the GOCD creates files that hold single vertical ocean currents profiles. The GOCD spans 1962 to 2013.

The World Ocean Database 2005 (WOD05) DVD contains data, documentation, programs, and utilities for the latest release of this product. Data include 7.9 million temperature profiles, and 2.7 million salinity profiles, plus data for 27 other in situ measurements, including oxygen, nutrients and chemical tracers, chlorophyll, carbon variables, and plankton. Data on the DVD are organized by instrument type. Within each instrument directory, the data are stored by year. Data are stored in ASCII format, and gzip compressed. Utilities are provided under the directory UTILS for both UNIX and DOS operating systems. This DVD contains six directories named: CODES (contains codes associated with the secondary header, biological header, and taxa data) DATA (contains yearly sorted data, dating from 1773 though 2005) DOC (contains the documentation) ODV (contains the Ocean Data View software for viewing the WOD05 data, developed by Dr. Reiner Schlitzer, AWI. This software will decompress selected files and offers users several options for viewing the WOD05 data. ODV works on PCs only). PROGRAMS (contains source code and executables for programs which are examples of how to read the data and can be used to reformat the data into comma-delimited or space-delimited forms). UTILS (contains the gzip utility for uncompressing WOD05 data files.)

A results paper for this dataset is in preparation for the Geoscience Data Journal as Ito T. (2021) Optimal interpolation of global dissolved oxygen: 1965-2015.

in situ ocean vertical profiles of temperature, salinity, density and dissolved oxygen concentration in the eastern south pacific were obtained over the period 1928-2018 from the world ocean database 2013 (18th september 1928 to 29th june 2015), the international argo program (23th november 2007 to 21st february 2018), and argo profiles available from the chilean community (31th october 2005 to 26th may 2011). only quality controlled data were selected. the wod2013 database is a compilation of profiles from ocean stations (osd), some profiling floats not present in the argo database (pfl), and ctd-o data (conductivity-temperature-depth-oxygen) obtained from several oceanographic cruises focused on the characterization of water-masses distribution from the mesoscale to regional-basin scales. using wod2013 and argo data, the vertical variability of the oxygen minimum zone (omz) in the eastern south pacific (esp; 0-40°s) was characterized in terms of the influence exerted by anticyclonic intra-thermocline eddies (ites), subsurface intensified mesoscale features frequently generated in the coastal upwelling zone off peru and chile. the unique lens-shape signature that ites leave on temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen vertical distributions was used as a proxy to assess their influence on the vertical omz boundaries and thickness. correlation analyses were performed between anomalous depth (and vertical displacements) of oxyclines and isopycnals/isotherms, together with an objective eddy detection method based on satellite altimetry to identify the location of such profiles (i.e. outside or inside eddies of cyclonic and anticyclonic nature). results indicate that most of the vertical fluctuations in the climatological omz take a lens-shape signature, and that those at mesoscale are largely due to ites. ites are a main driver of the upper oxycline variability in the coastal band and the coastal transition zone (3-10° from the coast) and also beyond it at mid-latitudes (12-26°s). the influence of ites on the upper and lower oxycline variability is mostly found within the horizontal (offshore) climatological boundary of the omz, suggesting that ites play a role in the omz offshore extension.

Synoptic monthly gridded Mediterranean Sea temperature (T), salinity (S), and absolute geostrophic velocity (u, v) fields are produced from the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) World Ocean Database (WOD) (T, S) profiles. The optimal spectral decomposition (OSD) (Chu et al. 2003a, b; 2015) and P vector (Chu 1995) methods are used to establish the synoptic monthly gridded (T, S, u, v) fields with (0.25o×0.25o) horizontal resolution, 57 vertical levels, and monthly increment from January 1960 to December 2013.

The Northwest Atlantic (NWA) plays a crucial role in long-term earth and ocean climate change. The Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current System are the key elements of northward heat transport and Meridional Overturning Circulation in the Atlantic Ocean. The NWA is a resource-rich coastal zone with abundant fisheries and other material resources. Its economic significance and climatic importance called forth intensive observational and research programs spanning over many decades.

To provide an improved oceanographic foundation and reference for multi-disciplinary studies of the NWA, NCEI Regional Climatology Team developed a new set of high-resolution quality-controlled long-term annual, seasonal and monthly mean temperature and salinity fields on different depth levels. This new regional climatology is based on the World Ocean Database archive of temperature and salinity from observations spanning over more than a hundred years and incorporates a great deal of new data not previously available.

The NWA high-resolution regional climatology is a part of the NOAA-wide Sustaining Marine Ecosystems in a Changing Climate (SMECC) Project.

"The COriolis Ocean Dataset for Reanalysis (hereafter ""CORA"") product is a global dataset of in situ temperature and salinity measurements. The CORA observations comes from many different sources collected by Coriolis data centre in collaboration with the In Situ Thematic Centre of the Copernicus Marine Service (CMEMS INSTAC). The observation integrated in the CORA product have been acquired both by autonomous platforms (Argo profilers, fixed moorings , gliders , drifters, sea mammals) , research or opportunity vessels (CTDs, XBTs, ferrybox). From the near real time CMEMS In Situ Thematic Centre product validated on a daily and weekly basis for forecasting purposes, a scientifically validated product is created. It s a ""reference product"" updated on a yearly basis since 2007. This product has been controlled using an objective analysis (statistical tests) method and a visual quality control (QC). This QC procedure has been developed with the main objective to improve the quality of the dataset to the level required by the climate application and the physical ocean re-analysis activities. It provides T and S weekly gridded fields and individual profiles both on their original level with QC flags and interpolated level. The measured parameters, depending on the data source, are : temperature, salinity. The reference level of measurements is immersion (in meters) or pressure (in decibars). CORA contains historical profiles extracted from the EN.4 global T&S dataset, World Ocean Atlas, SeaDataNet, ICES and other data aggregators." analysis_name=OA_CORA5.2_ cdm_data_type=Grid citation=Szekely et al. 2020, doi: 10.17882/46219 comment=V8.0 reference climatology and analysis parameters Conventions=CF-1.4 conventions=CF-1.6, COARDS, ACDD-1.3 creation_date=20241202T124029L data_doi=10.17882/46219 data_manager=Tanguy Szekely data_update=2025-08 Easternmost_Easting=179.5 geospatial_lat_max=89.89626 geospatial_lat_min=-77.01048 geospatial_lat_units=degrees_north geospatial_lon_max=179.5 geospatial_lon_min=-180.0 geospatial_lon_resolution=0.5 geospatial_lon_units=degrees_east history=20241202T124029L : Creation infoUrl=https://www.seanoe.org/data/00351/46219/ institution=Copernicus Marine Service (CMEMS) institution_country=FR institution_edmo_code=5938 keywords_vocabulary=GCMD Science Keywords naming_authority=OCEAN:ICE Northernmost_Northing=89.89626 owner_name=OceanScope product_DOI=https://doi.org/10.17882/46219 project_name=CMEMS Ins-TAC references=https://www.seanoe.org/data/00351/46219/ software_version=POSTOA_main - 7.0 source=Reanalysis sourceUrl=(local files) Southernmost_Northing=-77.01048 standard_name_vocabulary=CF Standard Name Table v85 time_coverage_end=2024-06-01T00:00:00Z time_coverage_start=1960-01-01T00:00:00Z variables=Time, Depth, Latitude, Longitude, Sea Temperature, Temperature Error, Error on temperature (% variance), Practical Salinity, Practical Salinity Error, Error on Salinity (% variance) Westernmost_Easting=-180.0

The QuOTA dataset is a collection of ocean temperature profiles from the Indian Ocean and Tasman Sea surrounding Australia. The data was collected together from various sources and instrument types, duplicate checked and quality controlled. Automated and expert/manual quality control was performed on the data. The automated quality control is discussed in Gronell, A., and S.E. Wijffels. 2008. A Semiautomated Approach for Quality Controlling Large Historical Ocean Temperature Archives. Journal Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology. v25, pp990-1003.

Temperature data from the QuOTA project are available in 5m bins in netcdf format, 2m bins by WMO squares and in a gridded format (described in documents list). They are also available in full resolution netcdf format as described in attached documentation.

Full resolution netcdf: QuOTATasmanSea.tar.gz QuOTAIndianOcean.tar.gz Format documented in 'MQNC_format.doc'

2m binned netcdf: Tasman2mbinsWMOsquares.zip IndianOcean2mbinsWMOsquares.zip Format documented in 'TZ_5m_2m_bins_header_description.doc'

5m binned netcdf: TasmanSea_TZ_5mbin_profiles.nc.gz IndianOcean_TZ_5mbin_profiles.nc.gz Format documented in 'TZ_5m_2m_bins_header_description.doc'

Gridded data netcdf: QuOTA_gridded_monthly_nc.gz Format documented in 'griddedQuotadesc.doc'

The dataset is useful as a high-quality upper ocean temperature dataset in quality control test validation, among other uses. The data collected covers the years 1772-2005. The project end was approximately 2008.

The paper describing the QuOTA quality control process is available in the CSIRO Research Publications Repository (RPR): http://hdl.handle.net/102.100.100/118409?index=1 Lineage: Ocean temperature profiles were collected from: NOAA World Ocean Database, 2001 CSIRO XBT data Bureau of Meteorology XBT data Far Seas Fisheries data (Japan) NOAA AOML XBT datasets GTSPP datasets Scripps XBT datasets WOCE (World Ocean Circulation Experiment) datasets Insititut de Recherche pour le Developpement, Noumea, New Caledonia Early CSIRO Research voyages Early Argo profiling float data

The GLobal Ocean Data Analysis Project (GLODAP) is a cooperative effort to coordinate global synthesis projects funded through NOAA/DOE and NSF as part of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study - Synthesis and Modeling Project (JGOFS-SMP). Cruises conducted as part of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) and NOAA Ocean-Atmosphere Exchange Study (OACES) over the decade of the 1990s have created an oceanographic database of unparalleled quality and quantity. These data provide an important asset to the scientific community investigating carbon cycling in the oceans.

The National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) uses a Global Ocean Data Assimilation System (GODAS) [http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/GODAS/] to routinely produce monthly and pentad (5-day) mean global ocean gridded data. The analysis system, that was originally applied only to the tropical Pacific, has evolved to use GFDL MOM v3 model and give near global coverage. Briefly, the model domain specifications are 65N to 75S, 1 degree resolution with 1/3 degree resolution within 10 degree of the equator, 40 levels and 10 meter resolution in the upper 200 meters. These data are a valuable community asset for monitoring different aspects of ocean climate variability.

The Northeast Fisheries Observer Database System (OBDBS) contains data collected on commercial fishing vessels by observers from 1989 - present and at-sea monitors from 2010 - present. The data include detailed gear, effort, catch, bycatch of finfish and protected species as well as biological samples of priority and protected species. Data is collected by trained fishery observers and at-sea...

Large whale stranding, death, ship strike and entanglement incidents are all recorded to monitor the health of each population and track anthropogenic factors that influence their recovery. This Oracle developed database is meant to consolidate the various forms of data into one searchable source for the east coast. Biological and geographic information will be recorded and searchable along with fishing gear information (entanglements), vessel parameters (ship strikes) and serious injury determinations.

Establishment of a bio-optical database of Australian Waters (SRS-OC-BODBAW) By harvesting all bio-geochemical and bio-optical data from all the IMOS data streams (ANMN, NRS, ANFOG, SRS Ocean Colour - Lucinda Jetty) and from legacy databases (e.g SRFME/WAMSI, Great Barrier Reef Long Term Monitoring Program, Aquafin CRC, Port Hacking transect, Research cruises in the Southern Ocean) it is possible to establish an Australian Database of bio-geochemical and bio-optical data. This SRS dataset covers the southern oceans worldwide and Indonesian waters. The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) are providing some of the data to the bio-optical database. This activity aims to collate measurements undertaken prior to the commencement of IMOS by several members of the Australian biological oceanography community. This database is used to assess accuracy of Satellite ocean colour products for current and forthcoming satellite missions for the Australian Waters. The bio-optical database underpins the assessment of ocean colour products in the Australian region (e.g. chlorophyll a concentrations, phytoplankton species composition and primary production). Such a data set is crucial to quantify the uncertainty in the ocean colour products in our region. Further, it is essential to assessing new ocean colour data products generated for the Australian region. The contribution of such a database to international space agencies ensures that the accuracy of global algorithm developed for future sensors will increase for Australian waters as bias towards Northern Hemisphere observation will be reduced. The database contains bio-optical data (i.e. HPLC, Chlorophyll by spectrophotometric methods, full spectral absorptions, TSS ) and in situ optical data (Vertical attenuation, water leaving radiance, reflectances, Atmospheric Optical Depth, spectral and single channel absorption and backscattering).