Global Ocean Surface CO2 Measurements from 1957 to 2019

14.2 million measurements of surface water partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) were collected over the global oceans. The dataset, version 2019, was assembled and quality-controlled by the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) and is distributed by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. It includes data from open oceans and coastal waters, with this update adding 567,632 new data points from four research vessels.

Use Cases

• Modeling global ocean carbon uptake by analyzing pCO2 measurements across latitudes and over a 62-year time range.
• Studying polar carbon dynamics using the multi-decadal records from specific research vessels like the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer.
• Assessing data quality and uncertainty for climate models, leveraging the documented average pCO2 uncertainty of ±2.5 uatm.
• Investigating coastal versus open ocean carbon chemistry by utilizing the included measurements from both water types.

Strengths

• Large-scale data collection with 14.2 million individual pCO2 measurements.
• Long temporal coverage spanning 62 years from 1957 to 2019.
• Includes quality control for system stability, calibration reliability, and internal data consistency.
• Provides multi-decadal records from specific polar research vessels, such as data since 1995 from the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer.

Limitations

• Data is limited to measurements from equilibrator-CO2 analyzer systems, excluding other methodologies.
• Spatial coverage may be biased towards high-latitude regions due to the operational areas of the four primary contributing research vessels.
• The dataset version is from 2019, lacking the most recent years of observations.

Provenance

Source

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) database, distributed via NOAA NCEI Ocean Carbon Data System (OCADS).

Collection Method

Measurements collected using shipboard equilibrator-CO2 analyzer systems, with quality control for system performance and calibration.

Time Range

1957 to 2019

Freshness

Last updated in December 2019; versioned annual updates were previously documented.

Geography

Global oceans, including open oceans and coastal waters, with noted emphasis on polar and sub-polar seas.