19th International CODATA Conference
Category: Knowledge Discovery
Using the
Tim Boyer (boyer@nodc.noaa.gov)
Ocean Climate Laboratory/National Oceanographic Data Center, USA
The World Ocean Database 2001 (WOD01) was released in 2001 as part of the Global
Ocean Data Archeology and Rescue (GODAR) project.
It contains 7 million temperature profiles and 2 million salinity profiles from
all parts of the world ocean from the mid-1800s to July, 2001. The data is available
on CD as well as a constantly updated version online. All temperature and salinity
data on WOD01 have been quality controlled through a rigorous procedure which
includes using the data to calculate climatologies over various time periods (annual, seasonal,
monthly). For periods with sufficient geographic coverage, 1945 to present
for temperature, 1950 to present for salinity, five year mean differences from
the climatologcal monthly means where calculated,
removing the annual cycle. The results were investigated to estimate decadal
changes in heat content and freshwater budgets globally. The use of the WOD01
data in scientific research provided quality control of data and the discovery
of problems which were not detected during prior quality control steps. This
additional quality control was passed on in quality control flags included with
the data. Our results show a nety warming of the
world ocean in the upper 3000 meters. The subtropical and
tropical north