TOGA Project: Oceanographic and Meteorological Data from 1907 to 1998

Oceanographic, biological, and meteorological data collected from 1907 to 1998 as part of the World Climate Research Program's Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) project. The collection includes in situ measurements from drifting buoys, ships, and satellites, processed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC). Parameters include barometric pressure, currents, water depth, temperature, humidity, wind, waves, salinity, nutrients, chlorophyll, and productivity indices.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean-atmosphere heat exchange based on sea surface and air temperature data.
• Analyzing long-term trends in ocean productivity based on chlorophyll and nutrient measurements.
• Studying tropical current systems and wind patterns based on current and wind parameter data.
• Calibrating satellite-derived oceanographic data with in situ buoy and ship measurements.

Strengths

• Covers a 91-year time range from 1907 to 1998, providing long-term climate context.
• Includes multi-source data from drifting buoys, ships, and satellites.
• Contains a diverse set of parameters spanning physical, chemical, and biological oceanography.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is stored in legacy NODC file formats which may require specialized tools for access.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

In situ measurements collected from drifting buoys, ships, and satellites as part of the WCRP TOGA project.

Time Range

1907 to 1998

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-05 23:28:44.540787; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Tropical Ocean regions (implied by the TOGA project scope).