The Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT) version 3 contains surface underway, chemical, meteorological, navigational and physical data collected from unknown platforms in the world-wide oceans from 1968-11-16 to 2013-12-31. These data include BAROMETRIC PRESSURE, LATITUDE, LONGITUDE, Partial pressure (or fugacity) of carbon dioxide - water, SALINITY and SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE. SOCAT is an international effort endorsed by IOCCP, SOLAS, and IMBER to deliver a uniformly quality-controlled surface ocean CO2 database.
Use Cases
- Modeling ocean carbon uptake based on partial pressure of carbon dioxide measurements
- Analyzing global sea surface temperature trends alongside salinity data
- Studying regional atmospheric pressure variations over the ocean
- Mapping spatial distributions of oceanic CO2 fugacity over time
Strengths
- Data spans a 45-year period from 1968 to 2013
- Includes multiple data types: chemical, meteorological, navigational, and physical
- Quality-controlled by an international consortium endorsed by IOCCP, SOLAS, and IMBER
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
- Data collection platforms are listed as unknown
Provenance
- Source
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
- Collection Method
- Surface underway data collection from unknown platforms
- Time Range
- 1968-11-16 to 2013-12-31
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-03-05 22:32:04.959531; freshness should be verified
- Geography
- World-wide oceans