The World Ocean Atlas is a set of objectively analyzed (1° grid) climatological fields of in situ temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, Apparent Oxygen Utilization (AOU), percent oxygen saturation, phosphate, silicate, and nitrate at standard depth levels for annual, seasonal, and monthly compositing periods for the World Ocean. It also includes associated statistical fields of observed oceanographic profile data interpolated to standard depth levels on both 1° and 5° grids
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World Ocean Atlas 2005 is comprised of three parts:
(1) Global, climatological (all-data regardless of year of observation) objectively analyzed fields on a 1-degree latitude-longitude grid at standard depth levels the following variables that are found in the "World Ocean Database 2005". Climatological compositing periods are annual, seasonal, and monthly. These variables include:
- temperature,
- salinity,
- oxygen,
- oxygen saturation,
- Apparent Oxygen Utilization (AOU),
- phosphate,
- silicate,
- nitrate.
(2) Statistics of the variables listed in (1) on a 10 grid latitude-longitude at standard depth levels (same compositing periods as listed in (1)) that include:
- number of observations in each 10-square,
- mean of all observations in each 10-square,
- standard deviation of all observations in each 10-square,
- standard error of the mean of all observations in each 10-square, number of gridpoints containing data within the influence region surrounding each gridpoint used for the objective analysis,
- the difference of the observed 10-square mean and the objectively analyzed mean at each 10-square,
- seasonal or monthly objectively analyzed mean minus the climatological annual mean.
(3) Statistics of the variables listed in (1) on a 50 grid at all standard depth levels (same compositing periods as listed in (1) that include:
- number of observations in each 50-square,
- mean of all observations in each 50-square,
- standard deviation of all observations in each 50-square,
- standard error of the mean of all observations in each 50-square.