The source of the WOD is more than 20,000 separate archived datasets contributed by institutions, project, government agencies, and individual investigators from the United States and around the world. The WOD contains the data on the originally measured depth levels (observed) and also interpolated to standard depth levels to present a more uniform set of iso-surfaces for oceanographic and climate work. Quality control procedures are documented and performed on each cast and the results are included as flags on each measurement. Ocean variables in the WOD include temperature, salinity, oxygen, nutrients, tracers, and biological variables such as plankton and chlorophyll. Multiple profiles at the same location from the same set of instruments is an oceanographic cast. To be considered a profile for the WOD, there must be more than a single depth/variable pair. depth at a single geographic location within a short (minutes to hours) temporal period in some portion of the water column from the surface to the bottom. Ocean profile data are sets of measurements of an ocean variable vs.
The World Ocean Database (WOD) is the world's largest publicly available uniform format quality controlled ocean profile dataset.
