What is a Climatology?

According to the World Meteorological Organization, the term “climatology” defines long-term averages of a given variable, like sea surface temperature, over various time periods, usually 30 years. In oceanography, the term “ocean climate” is used to define ocean parameters averaged over a decade or longer. Ocean climatologies, global or regional, relate specifically to long-term averaged oceanic parameters—temperature or salinity, for example—in the entire world ocean or in selected ocean regions.  sources: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/new-ocean-regional-climatology-added

Contents

World Ocean Atlas (WOA)

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/world-ocean-atlas-2023f/bin/woa23f.pl?parameterOption=t

World Ocean Atlas

The World Ocean Atlas (WOA) is a collection of objectively analyzed, quality controlled temperature, salinity, oxygen, phosphate, silicate, and nitrate means based on profile data from the World Ocean Database (WOD). It can be used to create boundary and/or initial conditions for a variety of ocean models, verify numerical simulations of the ocean, and corroborate satellite data.

The full WOA23 was released on February 14, 2024 and includes temperature, salinity, oxygen (and parameters Apparent Oxygen Utilization and percent oxygen saturation) and inorganic nutrients (phosphate, silicate, and nitrate). WOA23 includes approximately 1.8 million new oceanographic casts added to the WOD since WOA18’s release, as well as renewed and updated quality controls.

WOA23 DATA application contains objectively analyzed and statistical data at 102 standard depth levels of the World Ocean.

• Temperature and salinity data are available on one-degree and quarter-degree latitude-longitude grids and were generated for the following time periods: 1955-1964, 1965-1974, 1975-1984, 1985-1994, 1995-2004, 2005-2014, 2015-2022 and three 30-year 'climate normal' periods: 1971-2000, 1981-2010, and 1991-2020.
• Inorganic nutrients (phosphate, silicate, and nitrate) data are available at one-degree resolution for the 1965-2022 time period.
• Oxygen, Apparent Oxygen Utilization, and Percent Oxygen Saturation data are available at one-degree resolution for the 1965-2022 and 1971-2000 time periods.
• Additionally, all-data five-degree statistical data are made available for each variable.

WOCE Hydrographic Program Atlas

Figure 1. Stations occupied during the WOCE One-Time Survey

WOCE Atlas

WOCE Atlas Home

RVSMDC Data

Research Vessel Surface Meteology Data Center

The Hydrographic Program of the international World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) was a comprehensive global hydrographic survey of physical and chemical properties, of unprecedented scope and quality, and represents the "state of the oceans" during the 1990s.

Each of the 4 basin-oriented volumes includes:

• vertical sections of the scalar parameters measured during each of the WOCE One-time hydrographic survey cruises.
• horizontal maps showing the geographical distribution of properties at standard depths and along isoneutral surfaces.