NODC All of NOAA

Introduction to Ocean Station Time Series CD-ROM

The National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) and the World Data Center for Oceanography (WDC) have compiled from the NODC Oceanographic Station Data File a set of oceanographic data having repetitive samples along ocean sections or at fixed locations for long time periods. These oceanographic station time-series data, including temperature, salinity, density, and nutrients, are now available on one CD-ROM (originally distributed in 1993).

CD-ROM Contents

The total time-series data set contains: 27 North Pacific sections; 56 North Atlantic sections; sections along coastal California from the California Cooperative Fisheries Investigations (CALCOFI); 19 sections from the remainder of the World Oceans (including sections from the Mediterranean, North, Barents, and Tasman Seas as well as from the South Atlantic); and data from the 10 Ocean Weather Stations.

This disc contains both data and data inventory files for each section or fixed station. For each cruise, the inventory contains: country, ship name, NODC Reference Number, beginning and end cruise dates, and number of stations. Each inventory file is sorted by NODC Reference Number. The data are stored as ASCII records in the NODC Oceanographic Station Data 2 (SD2) format. The file OSD.TXT is an ASCII text file that provides a complete record layout of the SD2 format and the code tables used with it.

This CD-ROM also holds a preliminary list of reference citations associated with the time-series data sets. These citations are cross-referenced to the CD-ROM time-series data by the NODC Reference Number.

Use with Atlast Software

NOTE: The software originally distributed with this CD-ROM in 1993 is now out-of-date and probably will not work properly on your PC.

Also included on this CD-ROM is a conversion program that enables the data to be used with the ATLAST software package. This program (ATLCNV) converts data from the NODC Oceanographic Station Data 2 format to a scaled down format that serves as input to ATLAST, a program for accessing and displaying hydrographic and tracer section data. ATLAST was developed by Dr. Peter Rhines at the University of Washington and is distributed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The ATLAST program itself is not contained on this CD-ROM, but can be obtained by contacting JPL. ATLAST is not necessary for this CD-ROM to operate properly.