World Ocean Database and World Ocean Atlas 

The World Ocean Database (WOD) has global ocean observed and standard depth data profiles. The World Ocean Atlas (WOA) has objectively analyzed climatological mean fields on both a quarter-degree and on a one-degree longitude by latitude grids. The gridded analyses are for annual, seasonal, and monthly means of six oceanographic variables: temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, phosphate, and silicate on standard levels (typically at 102 depths, dependent on data availability).   The products were derived at the Ocean Climate Laboratory (OCL) of the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC). Development of the World Ocean
products began in 1982 and they have been updated in 1994, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2018 and 2023.  The featured products are now based
on the 2023 versions.  Some products from older version are still unique.

The WOD is the world's largest profile collection covering the global ocean and contains measurements from 1800 through 2023.  The WOA are climatological grids at fixed depths derived from quality checked WOD profiles.  This is a recognized world-wide standard and is often referenced in oceanographic research.

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Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

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Temporal Range

  • Begin:  1770-01-01
    End:  2024-10-22

Keywords

Resource Type dataset
Temporal Range Begin 1770-01-01
Temporal Range End 2024-10-22
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat N/A
Bounding Box South Lat N/A
Bounding Box West Long N/A
Bounding Box East Long N/A
Spatial Representation N/A
Spatial Resolution N/A
Related Links

Related Resource #1 : World Ocean Database
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format NetCDF4
Standardized Resource Format NetCDF
Asset Size 1267294.502 MB
Legal Constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name N/A
Resource Support Email datahelp@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization N/A
Distributor NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email datahelp@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange

Author Ocean Climate Laboratory, National Oceanographic Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
Publisher NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research
Publication Date 1984-08-17
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) https://doi.org/10.5065/BC03-2G95
Alternate Identifier d285000
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category oceans
Progress completed
Metadata Date 2025-10-09T01:24:54Z
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.gdex::d285000
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Ocean Climate Laboratory, National Oceanographic Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce. (1984). World Ocean Database and World Ocean Atlas. NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research. https://doi.org/10.5065/BC03-2G95. Accessed 21 October 2025.

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