Voluntary Observing Ship Climate (VOSClim) Fleet
The aim of Voluntary Observing Ship Climate (VOSClim) Fleet is to provide a high-quality subset of VOS data in both real time and in delayed mode, supplemented by an extensive array of metadata, to support global climate studies and research.
The VOSClim Fleet builds on the strong foundation of the VOS Climate Project that ran between 2001 and 2009.
The VOSClim Project followed the successful VOS Special Observing Project North Atlantic (VSOP-NA) that was conducted on behalf of the World Climate Research Project (WCRP) between May 1988 and September 1990. The aim of VSOP-NA was to establish the effects on the quality of VOS data of different ship instrumentation and observing practices.
A review of the VOSClim Project was initiated in 2008 and concluded that the operational project goals had been achieved and that there were many positive results that should be applied across the entire VOS Fleet. It was proposed and agreed at the Ship Observations Team Fifth Session (SOT-V) in 2009 to end the VOSClim Project but to create a new VOSClim class of VOS reporting vessel.
For more information on VOSClim please visit the Voluntary Observing Ship Scheme website.
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Data Management and Access
Data are collected at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), converted to a common format, and made available through FTP and database access along with supporting quality monitoring statistics. -
Ship Metadata
Upon recruitment of a ship into the VOSClim fleet, the Port Meteorological Officer (PMO) collects an extensive list of metadata about the ship as required for WMO No. 47 – International List of Selected, Supplementary, and Auxiliary Ships.
