WOCE HYDROGRAPHIC DATA
The World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) is the part od the World Climate Research Programme
that will provide much needed improvements in ocean circulation models for use in climate
prediction.
WOCE has used resources from 25 countries to make unprecedented in-situ observations
of the global ocean between 1990 and 1997. Central to the observation programme within the WOCE
was the measurement of physical and chemical properties of the water column - the so-called
WOCE hydrographic and tracer programme.
One fundamental purpose of the WOCE was to assemble a global hydrographic data set to uniform
standards of accuracy (or reproducibility) and precision.
The WOCE hydrographic programme (WHP) encompasses a range of physical and chemical measurements at
discrete stations. Station data consist of profiles of temperature,
salinity, dissolved oxygen and other parameters. Large and small volume bottle samples
enabled a variety of chemical properties to be analysed, including nutrients, COD, CFCs, tritium,
helium and other tracers.
The WOCE Hydrographic Programme consisted of two main surveys:
The observations of the one-time survey were conducted along a number
transoceanic sections with full-depth profiles.
The repeat hydrography survey provided infromation on the temporal
variability of the ocean along selected sections from several occupations in different
seasons and years.
Typically, WOCE hydrographic observations were made using a rosette bottle sampler mounted
above the conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensors. Accordingly, two types of data are
available for each WOCE cruise: the bottle data and the CTD data. Whereas the bottle data
present measurements at a number of levels limited by the number of bottles, the CTD sensors
produce a continuous record of salinity, temperature, depth and (optionally) oxygen.