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==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 |accessdate=2008-10-22 |publisher=[[National Oceanographic Data Center]] |date=2008-08-29 }}</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 |accessdate=2008-10-22 |publisher=[[National Oceanographic Data Center]] |date=2008-08-29 }}</ref>, 2001<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/WOA01/pr_woa01.html |title=World Ocean Atlas 2001 |accessdate=2008-10-22 |publisher=[[National Oceanographic Data Center]] |date=2007-10-04 }}</ref>, and 2005<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/WOA05/pr_woa05.html |title=World Ocean Atlas 2005 |accessdate=2008-10-22 |publisher=[[National Oceanographic Data Center]] |date=2007-09-12 }}</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 |accessdate=2010-05-19 |publisher=[[National Oceanographic Data Center]] |date=2010-03-30 }}</ref>. The WOD09 has more than 9 million temperature profiles and 3.6 million salinity profiles. The table shows a comparison of the number of stations by instrument type in WOD09 with previous NODC/WDC global ocean databases.
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! Instrument Type !! NODC (1974)<ref>6 Based on statistics from Levitus, S. (1982) Climatological Atlas of the World Ocean). NOAA Professional paper No. 13, pp. 191</ref> !! NODC (1991)<ref>7 Based on NODC Temperature Profile CD-ROM</ref> !! WOA94 !! WOD98 !! WOD01 !! WOD05 !! WOD09
|- style="text-align: right;"
| OSD <ref>8 WOD09 OSD dataset includes data from 121,763 low-resolution CTD casts and 1,489 low-resolution XCTD casts</ref> || 425,000 || 783,912 || 1,194,407 || 1,373,440 || 2,121,042 || 2,258,437 || 2,541,298
|- style="text-align: right;"
| CTD <ref>9 WOD09 CTD dataset includes data from 5,985 high-resolution XCTD casts</ref> || na || 66,450 || 89,000 || 189,555 || 311,943 || 443,953 || 641,845
|- style="text-align: right;"
| MBT <ref>10 WOD09 MBT dataset includes data from 80,325 DBT profiles and 5,659 Micro-BT profiles</ref> || 775,000 || 980,377 || 1,922,170 || 2,077,200 || 2,376,206 || 2,421,940 || 2,426,749
|- style="text-align: right;"
| XBT || 290,000 || 704,424 || 1,281,942 || 1,537,203 || 1,743,590 || 1,930,413 || 2,104,490
| GLD || na || na || na || na || na || 338 || 5,857
|- style="text-align: right;"
|'''Total Stations''' || '''1,490,000''' || '''2,535,163''' || '''4,487,519''' || '''5,285,113''' || '''7,037,213''' || '''7,900,349368''' || '''9,155133,099369'''
|- style="text-align: right;"
| Plankton || na || na || na || 83,650 || 142,900 || 150,250 || 218,695
|- style="text-align: right;"
| SUR <ref>11 Surface data are represented differently than profile data in WOD09 – all observations in a single cruise are combined into one “station” with zero depth, values of measured variables along with latitude, longitude, and Julian year-day to identify and locate individual sets of observations</ref> || na || na || na || na || 4,743 || 9,178 || 9,178
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