World ocean database 2013

The oceanographic databases described by this atlas series expands on the World Ocean Database 2009 (WOD09) product and its predecessors. We have expanded by including substantial amounts of both recent and historical data not previously available. Earlier NODC/WDC oceanographic databases, 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, verification of numerical simulations of the ocean, as a form of 'sea truth' for satellite measurements such as altimetric observations of sea surface height among others. Increasingly, nutrient fields are being used to initialize and/or verify biogeochemical models of the world ocean. In addition, NODC/WDC products are critical for support of international assessment programs such as the Intergovernmental Program on Climate Change (IPCC) of the United Nations.