NOAA Atlas NESDIS 72 WORLD OCEAN DATABASE 2013 Timothy P. Boyer, John I. Antonov, Olga K. Baranova, Carla Coleman, Hernan E. Garcia, Alexandra Grodsky, Daphne R. Johnson, Ricardo A. Locarnini, Alexey V. Mishonov, Todd D. O'Brien, Christopher R. Paver, James R. Reagan, Dan Seidov, Igor V. Smolyar, Melissa M. Zweng Editor: Sydney Levitus Technical Editor: Alexey Mishonov National Oceanographic Data Center Ocean Climate Laboratory Silver Spring, MD September 2013 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Penny S. Pritzker, Secretary National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Kathryn D. Sullivan, Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service Mary E. Kicza, Assistant Administrator Additional copies of this publication, as well as information about NODC data holdings and services, are available upon request directly from NODC. National Oceanographic Data Center User Services Team NOAA/NESDIS E/OC1 SSMC-3, 4th Floor 1315 East-West Highway Silver Spring, MD 20910-3282 Telephone: (301) 713-3277 Fax: (301) 713-3302 E-mail: [email protected] NODC home page: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/ For updates on the data, documentation and additional information about WOD13 please refer to: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/indprod.html This publication should be cited as: Boyer, T.P., J.I. Antonov, O.K. Baranova, C. Coleman, H.E. Garcia, A. Grodsky, D.R. Johnson, R.A. Locarnini, A.V. Mishonov, T.D. O'Brien, C.R. Paver, J.R. Reagan, D. Seidov, I.V. Smolyar, M.M. Zweng, 2013, World Ocean Database 2013. Sydney Levitus, Ed.; Alexey Mishonov, Technical Ed.; NOAA Atlas NESDIS 72, 209 pp. 2 CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................. 8 LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... 9 PREFACE ........................................................................................................... 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................... 14 ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... 14 1.1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 14 1.1.1. History ....................................................................................................................................... 14 1.1.2. Goals for World Ocean Database 2013 (WOD13) ..................................................................... 15 1.1.3. Data Organization ..................................................................................................................... 15 1.1.4. Datasets .................................................................................................................................... 17 1.1.5. Economic and scientific justification for maintaining archives of historical oceanographic data: the value of stewardship ..................................................................................................................... 22 1.1.6. Data fusion ................................................................................................................................ 23 1.1.7. Distribution ............................................................................................................................... 23 1.2. COMPARISON OF WOD13 WITH PREVIOUS GLOBAL OCEAN PROFILE DATABASES ....... 23 1.3. DATA SOURCES ........................................................................................................... 24 1.3.1. IOC Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue Project ........................................... 27 1.3.2. World Ocean Database Project ................................................................................................. 27 1.3.3. Near-real time data sources...................................................................................................... 28 1.3.4. International Research Projects Data ....................................................................................... 28 1.3.5. ICES Contribution ...................................................................................................................... 28 1.3.6. Declassified Naval Data Sets ..................................................................................................... 28 1.3.7. Integrated Global Ocean Service - Volunteer Observing Ship programs .................................. 29 1.3.8. NOAA Ship-of-Opportunity Program (SOOP) ............................................................................ 29 1.3.9. SURTROPAC ............................................................................................................................... 29 1.3.10. Underway CO2 ......................................................................................................................... 29 1.4. QUALITY CONTROL FLAGS ........................................................................................... 30 1.4.1. Levels of Quality Control ........................................................................................................... 30 1.5. OUTLOOK FOR FUTURE ACQUISITIONS OF HISTORICAL OCEAN PROFILE AND PLANKTON DATA AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN THE “WORLD OCEAN DATABASE PROJECT” 31 1.6. LAYOUT OF THE REST OF THIS DOCUMENT .................................................................. 32 1.7. REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................ 32 CHAPTER 2: OCEAN STATION DATA (OSD), LOW-RESOLUTION CTD, LOW-RESOLUTION EXPENDABLE XCTD, AND PLANKTON ........................ 38 2.1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 38 2.2. COMMONLY USED LOW AND LARGE VOLUME WATER COLUMN SAMPLERS ................ 39 2.3. VARIABLES AND METADATA INCLUDED IN THE OSD DATASET ..................................... 40 2.4. OSD DATA COVERAGE ................................................................................................. 45 3 2.5. PARAMETERS AND METADATA NOT INCLUDED IN THE OSD DATASET ......................... 45 2.6. PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE ...................................................................................... 48 2.7. REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................ 64 CHAPTER 3: CONDUCTIVITY-TEMPERATURE-DEPTH (PRESSURE) DATA (CTD) .................................................................................................................. 69 3.1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 69 3.2. CTD ACCURACY ........................................................................................................... 70 3.3. CTD CAST DISTRIBUTIONS ........................................................................................... 71 3.4. TRANSMISSOMETER OBSERVATIONS .......................................................................... 75 3.4.1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 75 3.4.2. Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Transmissometer Profiles .............................................. 76 3.4.3. Relevant Web Sites ................................................................................................................... 79 3.5. REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................ 79 CHAPTER 4: EXPENDABLE BATHYTHERMOGRAPH DATA (XBT) .............. 83 4.1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 83 4.2. XBT ACCURACY ........................................................................................................... 84 4.3. XBT DEPTH-TIME EQUATION ERROR ............................................................................ 84 4.4. CORRECTIONS TO XBT DEPTH-TIME EQUATION ERRORS AND TEMPERATURE BIASES .. 86 4.5. SURFACE DATA ACQUIRED CONCURRENTLY WITH XBT CASTS ..................................... 87 4.6. XBT PROFILE DISTRIBUTIONS ...................................................................................... 88 4.7. REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................ 93 CHAPTER 5: EXPENDABLE CONDUCTIVITY-TEMPERATURE-DEPTH DATA (XCTD) ................................................................................................................ 97 5.1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 97 5.2. XCTD PRECISION AND ACCURACY ................................................................................ 98 5.3. XCTD FALL-RATE ERROR .............................................................................................. 98 5.4. XCTD CAST DISTRIBUTIONS ......................................................................................... 99 5.5. RELEVANT WEB SITES ................................................................................................ 102 5.6. REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY