Global Ocean Temperature Salinity and Oxygen Profiles 1935 to 1978

1935 to 1978 station profiles provide quality-controlled measurements of temperature, salinity, and oxygen at standard ocean depths. The dataset was compiled by Sid Levitus at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory ERL/NOAA. It consists of nine data files with an additional file containing program documentation for reading the data.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term trends in ocean temperature and salinity profiles to study climate change impacts.
• Calibrating historical ocean reanalysis models using quality-controlled oxygen concentration data.
• Studying the vertical structure of water properties at standard depth levels across global stations.

Strengths

• 44-year temporal coverage from 1935 to 1978.
• Quality-controlled measurements for three key ocean variables: temperature, salinity, and oxygen.

Limitations

• Data collection ended in 1978, making it temporally stale for contemporary analysis.
• Specific row counts, geographic distribution details, and sample sizes are unknown.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), compiled by Sid Levitus at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.

Collection Method

Compilation of quality-controlled station data profiles from a worldwide distribution.

Time Range

1935-01-01 to 1978-12-31

Freshness

null

Geography

World-wide distribution (specific regions unknown).