World Ocean Database Project
Encyclopedia
The World Ocean Database Project, or WOD, is a project established by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
(IOC). The project leader is Sydney Levitus who is director of the International Council for Science
(ICSU) World Data Center (WDC) for Oceanography, Silver Spring. 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 international exchange of modern oceanographic data and encourage the development of regional oceanographic databases as well as the implementation of regional quality control procedures. This new Project was endorsed by the IODE at the conclusion of the Portugal meeting, 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 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.
29 depth-dependent variables (physical and biochemical) and 11 instruments types: Ocean Station Data (OSD), Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT), Expendable Bathythermograph (XBT), Conductivity, Temperature, Depth
(CTD), Undulating Oceanographic Recorder (UOR), Profiling Float (PFL), Moored Buoy (MRB), Drifting Buoy (DRB), Gliders (GLD), Autonomous Pinniped Bathythermograph (APB).
(WOAselect) series is a set of gridded (1° grid), climatological, objectively analyzed fields of the variables in the World Ocean Database. The WOAselect 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.
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission was established by resolution 2.31 adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO. It first met in Paris at Unesco Headquarters from 19 to 27 October 1961. Initially, 40 States became members of the Commission.The IOC is composed of its Member States ,...
(IOC). The project leader is Sydney Levitus who is director of the International Council for Science
International Council for Science
The International Council for Science , formerly the International Council of Scientific Unions, was founded in 1931 as an international non-governmental organization devoted to international co-operation in the advancement of science...
(ICSU) World Data Center (WDC) for Oceanography, Silver Spring. 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 international exchange of modern oceanographic data and encourage the development of regional oceanographic databases as well as the implementation of regional quality control procedures. This new Project was endorsed by the IODE at the conclusion of the Portugal meeting, 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
World Ocean Circulation Experiment
The World Ocean Circulation Experiment was a component of the international World Climate Research Program, and aimed to establish the role of the World Ocean in the Earth's climate system...
(WOCE) and Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), as well as currently active programs such as CLIVAR
CLIVAR
CLIVAR is a component of the World Climate Research Programme. Its purpose is to describe and understand climate variability and predictability on seasonal to centennial time-scales, identify the physical processes responsible for climate change and develop modeling and predictive capabilities for...
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 Project
Global Temperature-Salinity Profile Program
The Global Temperature-Salinity Profile Program is a cooperative international project that seeks to develop and maintain a global ocean Temperature-Salinity resource with up-to-date and high quality data.-Purpose:...
(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 and updates have been released approximately every four years, 1998, 2001, and 2005. The most recent World Ocean Database series, WOD09, was released in September 2009. 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.| Instrument Type | NODC (1974) | NODC (1991) | WOA94 | WOD98 | WOD01 | WOD05 | WOD09 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OSD | 425,000 | 783,912 | 1,194,407 | 1,373,440 | 2,121,042 | 2,258,437 | 2,541,298 |
| CTD | na | 66,450 | 89,000 | 189,555 | 311,943 | 443,953 | 641,845 |
| MBT | 775,000 | 980,377 | 1,922,170 | 2,077,200 | 2,376,206 | 2,421,940 | 2,426,749 |
| XBT | 290,000 | 704,424 | 1,281,942 | 1,537,203 | 1,743,590 | 1,930,413 | 2,104,490 |
| MRB | na | na | na | 107,715 | 297,936 | 445,371 | 566,544 |
| DRB | na | na | na | na | 50,549 | 108,564 | 121,828 |
| PFL | na | na | na | na | 22,637 | 168,988 | 547,985 |
| UOR | na | na | na | na | 37,645 | 46,699 | 88,190 |
| APB | na | na | na | na | 75,665 | 75,665 | 88,583 |
| GLD | na | na | na | na | na | 338 | 5,857 |
| Total Stations | 1,490,000 | 2,535,163 | 4,487,519 | 5,285,113 | 7,037,213 | 7,900,368 | 9,133,369 |
| Plankton | na | na | na | 83,650 | 142,900 | 150,250 | 218,695 |
| SUR | na | na | na | na | 4,743 | 9,178 | 9,178 |
Instrument Types
Ocean profile, plankton data, and metadata are available in the World Ocean Database for29 depth-dependent variables (physical and biochemical) and 11 instruments types: Ocean Station Data (OSD), Mechanical Bathythermograph (MBT), Expendable Bathythermograph (XBT), Conductivity, Temperature, Depth
Conductivity, temperature, depth
A CTD profiler is an essential instrument of physical and biological oceanographic field research. Operated from a ship, it greatly contributes to our understanding of ocean dynamics by gathering information on the distribution and variation of the ocean's properties...
(CTD), Undulating Oceanographic Recorder (UOR), Profiling Float (PFL), Moored Buoy (MRB), Drifting Buoy (DRB), Gliders (GLD), Autonomous Pinniped Bathythermograph (APB).
Word Ocean Database Products
The data in the World Ocean Database are made available through the online search and retrieval system known as WODselect. The World Ocean AtlasWorld Ocean Atlas
The World Ocean Atlas is a data product of the Ocean Climate Laboratory of the National Oceanographic Data Center . The WOA consists of a climatology of fields of in situ ocean properties for the World Ocean...
(WOAselect) series is a set of gridded (1° grid), climatological, objectively analyzed fields of the variables in the World Ocean Database. The WOAselect 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.
External links
- GODAR project and the World Ocean Database Project
- International Council for Science (ICSU)
- International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE)
- NODC Ocean Climate Laboratory datasets and products
- World Data Center system
- World Ocean Atlas 2009 (WOA09)
- World Ocean Database 2009 (WOD09)
- World Ocean Database Select (WODselect)