Identification

Title

World Ocean Database and World Ocean Atlas

Alternative title(s)

d285000

Abstract

<p> 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. </p> <p> 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. </p>

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

https://gdex.ucar.edu/datasets/d285000/

protocol: https

name: Dataset Description

description: Related Link

function: information

https://gdex.ucar.edu/datasets/d285000/dataaccess/

protocol: https

name: Data Access

description: Related Link

function: download

Unique resource identifier

code

codeSpace

Dataset language

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

oceans

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

dataset

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2021-03-30

Keyword set

keyword value

BUOYS

GRIDDING METHODS

MOORINGS

MOVING SHIPS

OCEAN WEATHER STATIONS

Ships

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2025-10-03

Keyword set

keyword value

BATHYTHERMOGRAPHS

CTD > Conductivity, Temperature, Depth

MBT > Mechanical Bathythermographs

STD > Salinity, Temperature, Depth

XBT > Expendable Bathythermographs

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2025-10-03

Keyword set

keyword value

EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > CHLOROPHYLL

EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > DISSOLVED GASES

EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > NITRATE

EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > OXYGEN

EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > PHOSPHATE

EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > SILICATE

EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN TEMPERATURE > WATER TEMPERATURE

EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > SALINITY/DENSITY > SALINITY

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2025-10-03

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

1770-01-01

End position

2024-10-22

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

1984-08-17

Frequency of update

notPlanned

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

organisation name

email address

datahelp@ucar.edu

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

organisation name

NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange

email address

datahelp@ucar.edu

web address

https://gdex.ucar.edu

name: NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange

description: The Geoscience Data Exchange (GDEX), managed by the Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) at NSF NCAR, contains a large collection of meteorological, atmospheric composition, and oceanographic observations, and operational and reanalysis model outputs, integrated with NSF NCAR High Performance Compute services to support atmospheric and geosciences research.

function: download

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2025-10-09T01:24:54Z

Metadata language