NOAA Atlas NESDIS 44 WORLD OCEAN DATABASE 2001 Volume 3: Temporal Distribution of Conductivity/Salinity-Temperature-Depth (Pressure) Casts Cathy Stephens Margarita E. Conkright Timothy P. Boyer John I. Antonov Olga K. Baranova Hernan E. Garcia Robert Gelfeld Daphne Johnson Ricardo A. Locarnini Paulette P. Murphy Todd D. O’Brien Igor Smolyar Editor: Sydney Levitus National Oceanographic Data Center Ocean Climate Laboratory Silver Spring, MD March 2002 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Donald L. Evans, Secretary National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., USN (Ret.), Under Secretary National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service Gregory W. Withee, Assistant Administrator National Oceanographic Data Center Additional copies of this publication, as well as information about NODC data holdings, and services, are available on request directly from NODC. NODC information and data are also available over the Internet through the NODC World Wide Web site. National Oceanographic Data Center User Services Team NOAA/NESDIS E/OC1 SSMC-III, 4th Floor 1315 East-West Highway Silver Spring, MD 20910-3282 Telephone: (301)713-3277 Fax: (301)713-3302 E-mail: services@nodc.noaa.gov NODC World Wide Web site: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/ For updates on the data, documentation and additional information about WOD01 please refer to: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov click on: Ocean Climate Laboratory click on: Products This publication should be cited as: C. Stephens, M. E. Conkright, T. P. Boyer, J. I. Antonov, O. Baranova, H. E. Garcia, R. Gelfeld, D. Johnson, R. A. Locarnini, P. P. Murphy, T. D. O'Brien, I. Smolyar, 2002: World Ocean Database 2001, Volume 3: Temporal Distribution of Conductivity/Salinity-Temperature-Depth (Pressure) Casts. S. Levitus, Ed., NOAA Atlas NESDIS 44, U.S. Government Printing Office, Wash., D.C., 47 pp., CD-ROMs. Contents Preface ................................................................. vi Acknowledgments .......................................................... vii Abstract ................................................................. 1 1. Introduction .......................................................... 1 2. CTD cast distributions .................................................. 1 3. Bibliography .......................................................... 11 4. Appendix A: Distributions for individual years of all CTD casts in WOD01 .......... 12 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. National contributions of Conductivity/Salinity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) profiles sorted by percent contribution of each country. Table 2. The number of CTD casts in WOD01 as a function of year for the World Ocean. Table 3. The number of CTD casts in WOD01 as a function of year for the southern hemisphere. Table 4. The number of CTD casts in WOD01 as a function of year for the northern hemisphere. LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1 Time series of CTD casts in WOD01 for the world ocean as a function of year. Fig. 2 Time series of CTD casts in WOD01 for the southern hemisphere as a function of year. Fig. 3 Time series of CTD casts in WOD01 for the northern hemisphere as a function of year. Fig. 4 Distribution of all casts in the CTD files of WOD01. APPENDIX A Fig. A1 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1967. Fig. A2 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1968. Fig. A3 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1969. Fig. A4 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1970. Fig. A5 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1971. Fig. A6 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1972. Fig. A7 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1973. Fig. A8 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1974. Fig. A9 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1975. Fig. A10 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1976. Fig. A11 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1977. Fig. A12 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1978. Fig. A13 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1979. Fig. A14 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1980. Fig. A15 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1981. Fig. A16 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1982. Fig. A17 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1983. Fig. A18 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1984. Fig. A19 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1985. Fig. A20 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1986. Fig. A21 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1987. Fig. A22 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1988. Fig. A23 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1989. Fig. A24 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1990. Fig. A25 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1991. Fig. A26 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1992. Fig. A27 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1993. Fig. A28 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1994. Fig. A29 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1995. Fig. A30 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1996. Fig. A31 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1997. Fig. A32 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1998. Fig. A33 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1999. Fig. A34 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 2000. Fig. A35 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 2001. PREFACE The oceanographic databases described by this atlas series greatly expands on the World Ocean Database 1998 (WOD98) product. We have expanded these earlier databases to include data from new instrument types such as profiling floats and new variables such as pCO_2 and TCO_2. Previous oceanographic databases including the NODC/WDC profile archives, and products derived from these databases, have proven to be of great utility to the international oceanographic, climate research, and operational environmental forecasting communities. In particular, the objectively analyzed fields of temperature and salinity derived from these databases have been used in a variety of ways. These include use as boundary and/or initial conditions in numerical ocean circulation models, for verification of numerical simulations of the ocean, as a form of "sea truth" for satellite measurements such as altimetric observations of sea surface height, and for planning oceanographic expeditions. Increasingly nutrient fields are being used to initialize and/or verify biogeochemical models of the world ocean. The databases, and products based on these databases, are critical for support of international assessment programs such as the Intergovernmental Program on Climate Change (IPCC) of the United Nations. It is well known that the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere will most likely double during the next century compared to CO_2 levels that occurred at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Regardless of one's scientific and/or political view of a possible "enhanced greenhouse warming" due to the increase of carbon dioxide, it is necessary that the international scientific community have access to the most complete historical oceanographic databases possible in order to study this problem, as well as other scientific and environmental problems. The production of oceanographic databases is a major undertaking. Such work benefits from the input of many individuals and organizations. We have tried to structure the data sets in such a way as to encourage feedback from experts around the world who have knowledge that can improve the data and metadata contents of the database. It is only with such feedback that high quality global ocean databases can be prepared. Just as with scientific theories and numerical models of the ocean and atmosphere, the development of global ocean databases is not carried out in one giant step, but proceeds in an incremental fashion. In the acknowledgment section of this publication we have expressed our view that creation of global ocean databases is only possible through the cooperation of scientists, data managers, and scientific administrators throughout the international community. I thank my colleagues at the Ocean Climate Laboratory of NODC for their dedication to the project leading to publication of this atlas series. Their commitment has made this database possible. It is my belief that the development and management of national and international oceanographic dataarchives is best performed by scientists who are actively working with the data. Sydney Levitus National Oceanographic Data Center/World Data Center for Oceanography- Silver Spring Silver Spring, MD March 2002 Acknowledgments This work was made possible by a grant from the NOAA Climate and Global Change Program which enabled the establishment of a research group, the Ocean Climate Laboratory (OCL), at the National Oceanographic Data Center. The purpose of the OCL is to prepare research quality oceanographic databases, as well as to compute objective analyses of, and diagnostic studies based on, these databases. The data made available as part of this atlas include a part of the oceanographic data archives maintained by NODC/WDC as well as data acquired as a result of the IODE/IOC “Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue” (GODAR) project. At NODC/WDC, “data archaeology and rescue” projects are supported with funding from the NOAA Environmental Science Data and Information Management (ESDIM) Program and NOAA Climate and Global Change Program. The majority of funding for these efforts is now provided by the ESDIM program. Support for this work from joint NASA/NOAA and DOE/NOAA Global Change data management programs is appreciated. Support for some of the regional IOC/GODAR meetings was provided by the MAST program of the European Union. We acknowledge the scientists, technicians, and programmers who have submitted data to national and regional data centers as well as the managers and staff at the various data centers. Our database allows for the storage of metadata including information about Principal Investigators to recognize their efforts. The OCL expresses thanks to those who provided comments and helped develop an improved World Ocean Database 2001 (WOD01) product. In particular, Dr. Steve Worley of NCAR, and Steve Hankin of PMEL for testing the CD-ROMs prior to distribution. Roy Lowry (BODC) and Tom Whitworth (TAMU) for suggestions. Any errors in WOD01 are the responsibility of the Ocean Climate Laboratory. Ervin Godfrey Trammell and Charlotte Sazama of the NODC International Data Exchange Team helped locate data in the WDC archives for digitization. We thank Mike Chepurin, Igor Minin, Dan Smolyar, Alexandra Grodsky, and CarlaForgy of the OCL for their work in data digitization and their assistance in quality control of the data and metadata in WOD01. Renee Tatusko identified many missing metadata. The OCL acknowledges the help received over the last several years from colleagues in other NODC divisions. Francis Mitchell helped with all the code lists and accessions, Melanie Hamilton supplied GTSPP data. Declassification of naval oceanographic data by various navies is acknowledged. The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission has requested such declassification efforts in recent years. World Ocean Database 2001, Volume 3: Temporal Distribution of Conductivity/Salinity-Temperature-Depth (Pressure) Casts C. Stephens, M. E. Conkright, T. P. Boyer, J. I. Antonov, O. Baranova, H. Garcia, R. Gelfeld, D. Johnson, R. A. Locarnini, P. P. Murphy, T. D. O’Brien, I. Smolyar, Ocean Climate Laboratory National Oceanographic Data Center / NOAA Silver Spring, MD ABSTRACT This atlas describes a collection of scientifically quality controlled ocean Conductivity/Salinity-Temperature-Depth (Pressure) (CTD) casts. Yearly distributions for individual years of all CTD casts in the database are presented to provide information on the state of ocean CTD cast observations. 1. INTRODUCTION Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) instruments measure temperature and conductivity as a function of pressure (depth) at relatively high (often referred to as “continuous”) vertical resolution. Salinity is computed from the conductivity measurement. CTD data may be submitted to NODC/WDC-A at sub-meter vertical resolution. These data are now archived at this resolution whereas in the past, electronic storage limitations resulted in only selected levels being stored. An earlier version of the CTD instrument was the STD (salinity-temperature-depth) which computed salinity from a conductivity sensor as the instrument was moving though the water column. Because of instrument problems that led to erroneous data values (spikes), this method was replaced by the CTD method for which conductivity measurements are recorded from the instrument and then salinity computed with appropriate calibration information. Dissolved oxygen content can now be measured “continuously” with sensors placed on CTD instruments. New sensors are being developed to make “continuous” measurements of other variables. We refer to CTD “stations” or “casts” to recognize that more than one variable is being measured when a CTD instrument is deployed. 2. CTD Cast DISTRIBUTIONS Figure 1 shows the number of CTD casts contained in WOD01 for the World Ocean as a function of year. Figures 2 and 3 show the time series for the northern and southern hemispheres respectively. There are a total of 312,344 CTD casts for the entire World Ocean with 40,587 profiles (13%) measured in the southern hemisphere and 271,757 profiles (87%) measured in the northern hemisphere. Table 1 provides the exact number of CTD casts included in WOD01 as a function of year. The geographic distribution of CTD casts for individual years for 1966-2001 are shown in Figures A1-A35. Most profiles have been made in the northern hemisphere, but the southern hemisphere coverage has been increased due to international data archaeology and rescue efforts and the World Ocean Database project (Levitus et al. 1994, 2002). Table 1 National contributions of Conductivity/Temperature/Depth (CTD) casts sorted by percent contribution of each country
NODC Country Name CTD Count % of Total
31UNITED STATES9006728.84
18CANADA7561224.21
32UNITED STATES304179.74
6GERMANY, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF243557.8
35FRANCE165485.3
90RUSSIA136894.38
74UNITED KINGDOM104763.35
58NORWAY84692.71
48ITALY81092.6
9AUSTRALIA73362.35
29SPAIN44001.41
20CHILE40151.29
76CHINA, THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF27010.86
91SOUTH AFRICA20280.65
64NETHERLANDS18560.59
46ICELAND18160.58
33UNITED STATES14930.48
67POLAND13910.45
68PORTUGAL12890.41
49JAPAN11580.37
7GERMANY, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF8230.26
26DENMARK7290.23
ZZMISCELLANEOUS ORGANIZATIONAL UNITS5640.18
99UNKNOWN4750.15
36GREECE3360.11
8ARGENTINA3190.1
34FINLAND2510.08
28ECUADOR2170.07
11BELGIUM2120.07
89TURKEY1990.06
47ISRAEL1950.06
77SWEDEN1650.05
42INDONESIA1590.05
41INDIA1430.05
21TAIWAN1070.03
61NEW ZEALAND1020.03
57 MEXICO 59 0.02
24 KOREA, REPUBLIC OF 28 0.01
RU RUSSIA 27 0.01
45 IRELAND 10 0
The United States, Russia, and Japan have multiple country codes. This is because the NODC Institution Code is limited to two digits and these countries each have more than 99 institutions that can potentially transfer data to NODC/WDC. Table 2 The number of all CTD casts in WOD01 as a function of year for the World Ocean. Total Number of Profiles = 312,344
YEAR PROFILE YEAR PROFILE YEAR PROFILE YEAR PROFILE
1967 1526 1976 8010 1985 11269 1994 14761
1968 727 1977 8102 1986 12838 1995 13748
1969 2445 1978 10009 1987 16760 1996 9055
1970 561 1979 9295 1988 13272 1997 10928
1971 980 1980 8576 1989 13972 1998 8931
1972 3185 1981 11700 1990 15722 1999 6457
1973 4989 1982 8683 1991 14063 2000 340
1974 7205 1983 10756 1992 17148 2001 26
1975 6684 1984 11539 1993 18082
Table 3 The number of all CTD casts in WOD01 as a function of year for the southern hemisphere. Total Number of Profiles = 40,587
YEAR PROFILE YEAR PROFILE YEAR PROFILE YEAR PROFILE
1967 607 1976 482 1985 1475 1994 3337
1968 191 1977 799 1986 1347 1995 2805
1969 57 1978 1009 1987 1649 1996 1729
1970 0 1979 745 1988 965 1997 1545
1971 62 1980 797 1989 2093 1998 213
1972 108 1981 401 1990 1465 1999 122
1973 174 1982 473 1991 1679
1974 326 1983 2297 1992 4565
1975 952 1984 2060 1993 4058
Table 4 The number of all CTD casts in WOD01 as a function of year for the northern hemisphere. Total Number of Profiles = 271,757
YEAR PROFILE YEAR PROFILE YEAR PROFILE YEAR PROFILE
1967 919 1976 7528 1985 9794 1994 11424
1968 936 1977 7303 1986 11491 1995 10943
1969 2388 1978 9000 1987 15111 1996 7326
1970 561 1979 8550 1988 12307 1997 9383
1971 918 1980 7779 1989 11879 1998 8718
1972 3077 1981 11299 1990 14257 1999 6335
1973 4815 1982 8210 1991 12384 2000 340
1974 6879 1983 8459 1992 12583 2001 26
1975 5732 1984 9479 1993 14024
![Bar chart showing the number of CTD casts in WOD01 for the world ocean as a function of year, with a total of 312,344 profiles. The x-axis is labeled 'YEAR' (ranging from 67 to 01), and the y-axis is labeled 'NUMBER OF PROFILES' (ranging from 0 to 20,000).](page_180_180_1689_1202.png) Fig. 1 Time series of CTD casts in WOD01 for the world ocean as a function of year. ![Time series bar chart showing the number of CTD casts in WOD01 for the southern hemisphere as a function of year. The y-axis is labeled 'NUMBER OF PROFILES' and ranges from 0 to 20,000. The x-axis is labeled 'YEAR' and ranges from 67 to 01. A box at the top states 'Total profiles = 40,587'.](page_180_120_1688_1342.png) Fig. 2 Time series of CTD casts in WOD01 for the southern hemisphere as a function of year. ![Time series bar chart showing the number of CTD casts in WOD01 for the northern hemisphere as a function of year, with a total of 271,757 profiles. The x-axis represents years from 67 to 01, and the y-axis represents the number of profiles, ranging from 0 to 20,000.](page_184_120_1680_1200.png) Fig. 3 Time series of CTD casts in WOD01 for the northern hemisphere as a function of year. Fig. 4 Distribution of all casts in the CTD files of WOD01. Dots show location of 1-degree squares containing any data. ![World map showing the distribution of all casts in the CTD files of WOD01, with dots indicating the location of 1-degree squares containing any data.](page_0_0_2048_1536.png) 3. BIBLIOGRAPHY Levitus, S., R. Gelfeld, T. Boyer, and D. Johnson, 1994: Results of the NODC and IOC Data Archaeology and Rescue projects. Key to Oceanographic Records Documentation No. 19, National Oceanographic Data Center, Washington, D.C., 67 pp. Levitus, S., M. Conkright, T.P. Boyer, R. Gelfeld, D. Johnson, I. Smolyar, C. Stephens, G. Trammell, R. Moffatt, T. O’Brien, L. Stathoplos, 1998: Results of the IOC Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue (GODAR) project. NOAA NESDIS Technical Report. Mantyla, A., 1987: Standard Seawater comparisons updated. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 17, 543-548. Millero, F. J., 1993: What is PSU? Oceanography, 6(3), 67. NOIC, 1970: Calibration procedure for deep sea reversing thermometers. National Oceanographic Instrumentation Center; Rockville, MD NOIC, 1970: Calibration procedure for STD. National Oceanographic Instrumentation Center; Rockville, MD Park, K. , 1964: Reliability of Standard Sea water as a conductivity standard. Deep-Sea Res., 11, 85-87. UNESCO, 1981: Background papers and supporting data on the Practical Salinity Scale. UNESCO Tech. Series, Marine Science, 37, Paris, 144 pp. UNESCO, 1987: International Oceanographic Tables. Paris, Tech. Pap. Mar. Sci., 195 pp. Wallace, W. J., 1974: The Development of the Chlorinity/Salinity Concept in Oceanography, Elsevier, New York. Wooster, W. S. and B. A. Taft, 1958: On the reliability of field measurements of temperature and salinity. J. Mar. Res., 17, 552-566. 4. APPENDIX A: DISTRIBUTIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL YEARS OF ALL CTD CASTS IN WOD01 This appendix contains yearly cast distributions of all CTD casts contained in WOD01. These maps provide some history of the observational progress of the field of oceanography. They also serve as indicators of whether or not a particular data set from a scientist or institution is part of the NODC/WDC-A archive. The exchange of information provided by the publication of such maps has provided us with valuable information about deficiencies in the database. The locations of all WOD01 CTD casts are plotted including casts that may be erroneously located over land. However, WOD01 contains some casts from various lakes so care should be exercised in the use of these casts and the determination as to whether they represent errors in locations. For all figures in Appendix A, a small dot indicates a one-degree square containing from one to four casts and a large dot indicates five or more casts. Fig. A1 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1967 . Fig. A2 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1968 . Fig. A3 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1969 . Fig. A4 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1970 . Fig. A5 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1971 . Fig. A6 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1972 . Fig. A7 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1973 . Fig. A8 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1974 . Fig. A9 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1975 . Fig. A10 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1976 . Fig. A11 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1977 . Fig. A12 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1978 . Fig. A13 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1979 . Fig. A14 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1980 . Fig. A15 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1981 . Fig. A16 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1982 . Fig. A17 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1983 . Fig. A18 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1984 . Fig. A19 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1985 . Fig. A20 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1986 . Fig. A21 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1987 . Fig. A22 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1988 . Fig. A23 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1989 . Fig. A24 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1990 . Fig. A25 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1991 . Fig. A26 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1992 . Fig. A27 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1993 . Fig. A28 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1994 . Fig. A29 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1995 . ![World map showing CTD cast distribution for year 1996](page_246_180_1557_1202.png) Fig. A30 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1996 . Fig. A31 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1997 . Fig. A32 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1998 . Fig. A33 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 1999 . Fig. A34 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 2000 . Fig. A35 WOD01 CTD cast distribution for year 2001 .