Voluntary Observing Ship metadata originates from the World Meteorological Organization's Publication No. 47 and subsequent listings from EUMETNET E-SURFMAR and JCOMMOPS. The collection includes ship identification, activity dates, instrument types, and installation heights. Files from the E-SURFMAR program cover June 26, 2014 to December 2017.
Use Cases
- Tracking ship instrumentation and deployment history based on ship activity dates and instrument types.
- Validating marine observation station metadata based on ship identification and installation height information.
- Studying the evolution of the Voluntary Observing Ship program based on metadata fields spanning multiple administrative sources.
Strengths
- Built upon the established WMO Publication No. 47 framework.
- More frequent update schedule than the primary WMO publication during its active period.
- Covers a defined period from June 2014 to December 2017 for the E-SURFMAR files.
Limitations
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
Provenance
- Source
- NOAA NCEI, via NASA Earthdata, aggregating WMO, EUMETNET E-SURFMAR, and JCOMMOPS sources.
- Collection Method
- Compiled from official Voluntary Observing Ship program metadata listings.
- Time Range
- Primary described coverage from June 26, 2014 to December 2017 (E-SURFMAR files).
- Geography
- Global, based on Voluntary Observing Ship routes.