North Atlantic Ocean Temperature and Salinity Frequency Distributions

More than 80,000 plots of empirical frequency distributions for temperature and salinity across 5-degree squares of the North Atlantic Ocean (80N to 30S) at standard depth levels, derived from the World Ocean Database 1998. Statistical plots include means, medians, standard deviations, quartiles, and skewness, presented in both normalized and natural coordinates. The data is split across two discs, with Disc 1 covering seasonal distributions for the upper ocean (0-400m) and Disc 2 covering annual distributions for the deep ocean (500-5500m).

Use Cases

• Analyzing spatial patterns of ocean temperature and salinity based on frequency distributions per 5-degree square.
• Comparing central tendency and dispersion metrics (e.g., mean vs. median, standard deviation vs. MAD) for oceanographic properties.
• Investigating seasonal versus annual variability in the upper ocean versus the deep ocean.
• Assessing the skewness of temperature and salinity distributions to understand data normality across regions and depths.

Strengths

• Contains more than 80,000 statistical plots, indicating a large-scale analysis.
• Provides multiple robust statistical estimates (arithmetic mean, median, winsorized mean, MAD, quartiles).
• Covers a wide geographic area (80N to 30S) and depth range (0m to 5500m) of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Limitations

• Underlying data is from 1998, which may limit relevance for contemporary climate studies.
• Source platforms conflict on the last updated date (1993 vs. 2026), creating uncertainty about metadata maintenance.
• Column names and specific data formats are not provided, hindering precise technical understanding.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Derived from World Ocean Database 1998 data.

Time Range

1998

Freshness

2026-03-06 00:22:40.921663

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean (80N to 30S)