Comparison of World Ocean Databases
The World Ocean Database was first released in 1994 and updates have been released approximately every four years, 1998, 2001, and 2005. The most recent World Ocean Database series, WOD09, was released in September 2009. The WOD09 has more than 9 million temperature profiles and 3.6 million salinity profiles. The table shows a comparison of the number of stations by instrument type in WOD09 with previous NODC/WDC global ocean databases.
| Instrument Type | NODC (1974) | NODC (1991) | WOA94 | WOD98 | WOD01 | WOD05 | WOD09 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OSD | 425,000 | 783,912 | 1,194,407 | 1,373,440 | 2,121,042 | 2,258,437 | 2,541,298 |
| CTD | na | 66,450 | 89,000 | 189,555 | 311,943 | 443,953 | 641,845 |
| MBT | 775,000 | 980,377 | 1,922,170 | 2,077,200 | 2,376,206 | 2,421,940 | 2,426,749 |
| XBT | 290,000 | 704,424 | 1,281,942 | 1,537,203 | 1,743,590 | 1,930,413 | 2,104,490 |
| MRB | na | na | na | 107,715 | 297,936 | 445,371 | 566,544 |
| DRB | na | na | na | na | 50,549 | 108,564 | 121,828 |
| PFL | na | na | na | na | 22,637 | 168,988 | 547,985 |
| UOR | na | na | na | na | 37,645 | 46,699 | 88,190 |
| APB | na | na | na | na | 75,665 | 75,665 | 88,583 |
| GLD | na | na | na | na | na | 338 | 5,857 |
| Total Stations | 1,490,000 | 2,535,163 | 4,487,519 | 5,285,113 | 7,037,213 | 7,900,368 | 9,133,369 |
| Plankton | na | na | na | 83,650 | 142,900 | 150,250 | 218,695 |
| SUR | na | na | na | na | 4,743 | 9,178 | 9,178 |
Read more about this topic: World Ocean Database Project
Famous quotes containing the words comparison, world and/or ocean:
“He was a superior man. He did not value his bodily life in comparison with ideal things. He did not recognize unjust human laws, but resisted them as he was bid. For once we are lifted out of the trivialness and dust of politics into the region of truth and manhood.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“By degrees we may come to know the primitive sense of the permanent objects of nature, so that the world shall be to us an open book, and every form significant of its hidden life and final cause.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“See how peaceful it is here. The sea is everything. An immense reservoir of nature where I roam at will.... Think of it. On the surface there is hunger and fear. Men still exercise unjust laws. They fight, tear one another to pieces. A mere few feet beneath the waves their reign ceases, their evil drowns. Here on the ocean floor is the only independence. Here I am free.”
—Earl Felton, and Richard Fleischer. Captain Nemo (James Mason)