Global Argo Float Profiles of Temperature and Salinity from 1950 to 2006

Oceanographic profiles contain temperature, salinity, and pressure measurements collected by autonomous Argo profiling floats. The U.S. National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) archives these data as part of the Global Argo Data Repository. Profiles were collected from 1950 through 2006, with weekly archiving starting in the second quarter of fiscal year 2003.

Use Cases

• Modeling global ocean heat content trends using temperature and pressure profile time-series.
• Analyzing salinity distribution and freshwater flux by region from salinity column data.
• Training models to predict subsurface ocean properties from surface data using concurrent temperature and salinity measurements.
• Detecting anomalies in oceanographic conditions by comparing float profile data against climatological baselines.

Strengths

• Data spans a multi-decade period from 1950 to 2006.
• Profiles include concurrent measurements of core ocean variables: temperature, salinity, and pressure.
• Collected via the standardized international Argo float network, ensuring consistent methodology.

Limitations

• The dataset's final update was in 2006, making it temporally stale for contemporary climate studies.
• Specific sample size, row count, and geographic resolution per profile are unknown from the provided description.

Provenance

Source

U.S. National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) / NOAA NCEI, via the Global Argo Data Repository.

Collection Method

Measurements collected by autonomous Argo profiling floats, with data archived weekly.

Time Range

1950 to 2006

Freshness

Last updated 2006-10-01; historical archive with no stated ongoing updates.

Geography

Global Ocean