World Ocean Database Project: Difference between revisions

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Latest revision as of 11:23, 18 August 2025

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{{short description|International collection of ocean profile-plankton data}}

The '''World Ocean Database Project''', or '''WOD''', is a projectwas established by the [[Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission]] (IOC). The project leader was Sydney Levitus, who was also director of the [[International Council for Science]] (ICSU) World Data Center (WDC) for Oceanography, Silver Spring.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ioc-unesco.org/index.php?option=com_oe&task=viewDocumentRecord&docID=1102|title=Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission|website=www.ioc-unesco.org|language=en-gb|access-date=2017-07-18}}</ref> Sydney Levitus retired in 2013.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mishnov |first=Alexey |date=July 2019 |title=World Ocean Atlas 2018 Volume 4: Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients (phosphate, nitrate and nitrate+nitrite, silicate) |url=https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/woa18_vol4.pdf |access-date=June 7, 2024 |website=NOAA NCEI |page=4

|quote=He retired in 2013 after 39 years of distinguished civil service. }}</ref> In recognition of the success of the IOC [[Global Oceanographic Data Archaeological and Rescue Project]] (GODAR project), a proposal was presented at the 16th Session of the Committee on [[International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange]] (IODE), which was held in [[Lisbon, Portugal]], in October–November 2000, to establish the World Ocean Database Project. This project is intended to stimulate the international exchange of modern oceanographic data and, encourage the development of regional oceanographic databases, asand well as the implementation ofimplement regional quality control procedures. ThisAfter newthe ProjectPortugal was endorsed bymeeting, the IODE atendorsed thethis conclusionnew of the Portugal meetingProject, and the IOC subsequently approved this project in June 2001.

The World Ocean Database represents the world's largest collection of ocean profile-plankton data available internationally without restriction. Data comes from the: (a) Sixty-five National Oceanographic Data Centers and nine Designated National Agencies (DNAs) (in Croatia, Finland, Georgia, Malaysia, Romania, Senegal, Sweden, Tanzania, and Ukraine), (b) International Ocean Observing Projects such as the completed [[World Ocean Circulation Experiment]] (WOCE) and Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), as well as currently active programs such as [[CLIVAR]] and Argo, (c) International Ocean Data Management Projects such as the IOC/IODE Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue Project (GODAR), and (d) Real-time Ocean Observing Systems such as the IOC/IODE [[Global Temperature-Salinity Profile Program|Global Temperature-Salinity Profile Project]] (GTSPP). All ocean data acquired by WDC Silver Spring – USA are considered as part of the WDC archive and are freely available as public ___domain data.

==Comparison of World Ocean Databases==

The World Ocean Database was first released in 1994<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/indpub.html#World%20Ocean%20Atlas%201994 |title=World Ocean Atlas 1994 series |publisher=[[National Oceanographic Data Center]]}}</ref> and updates have been released approximately every four years,: 1998,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/indpub.html#World%20Ocean%20Atlas%201998 |title=World Ocean Atlas 1998 series |publisher=[[National Oceanographic Data Center]]}}</ref> 2001,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/WOA01/pr_woa01.html |title=World Ocean Atlas 2001 |publisher=[[National Oceanographic Data Center]]}}</ref> and 2005.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/WOA05/pr_woa05.html |title=World Ocean Atlas 2005 |publisher=[[National Oceanographic Data Center]]}}</ref> The most recent World Ocean Database series, WOD09, was released in September 2009.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/WOA09/pr_woa09.html |title=World Ocean Atlas 2009 |publisher=[[National Oceanographic Data Center]]}}</ref> The WOD09 has more than 9 million temperature profiles and 3.6 million salinity profiles. The table shows a comparison ofcompares the number of stations by instrument type in WOD09 with previous NODC/WDC global ocean databases.

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==Word Ocean Database Products==

The data in the World Ocean Database are made available through the online search and retrieval system known as WOD''select''. The [[World Ocean Atlas]] (WOA''select'') series is a set of gridded (1° grid), climatological, objectively analyzed fields of the variables in the World Ocean Database. The WOA''select'' is a selection tool by which the user can designate a geographic area, depth, and oceanographic variable to view climatological means or related statistics for a given variable at the requested depth for the requested geographic area.

== See also ==