Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content
  • Feedback

    • NODC Standard Product: World Ocean Atlas 2001 (6 disc set) (NCEI Accession 0095600)

    Metadata Updated: March 1, 2025

    The World Ocean Atlas 2001 (WOA01) Series consists of two sets of products. The first set of products consists of three DATA CD-ROMs containing global data statistics at standard depth levels by one-degree and five-degree squares of several commonly measured ocean variables, as well as objectively analyzed fields (on a one-degree grid) of these variables. These products are in ASCII format. The ocean variables included in this series are: in-situ temperature, salinity, oxygen (dissolved oxygen, apparent oxygen utilization (AOU), and percent oxygen saturation), dissolved inorganic nutrients (phosphate, nitrate, and silicate), and chlorophyll at standard depth levels, and plankton biomass sampled between 0 m and 200 m depth. The second set of products consists of three FIGURE DVDs containing PDF figures illustrating the fields found on the DATA CD-ROMs.

    The World Ocean Atlas 2001 (WOA01) is an update of World Ocean Atlas 1998. WOA01 expands on WOA98 with the addition of the monthly nutrients fields and the introduction of annual and seasonal zooplankton biomass fields.

    The WOA01 consists of three CD-ROMs containing global data statistics at standard depth levels by one-degree and five-degree squares of several commonly measured ocean variables, as well as objectively analyzed fields (on a one-degree grid) of these variables.

    Disc 1: Temperature & Salinity
Disc 2: Oxygen (dissolved oxygen, apparent oxygen utilization (AOU), and percent oxygen saturation)
Disc 3: Nutrients (phosphate, nitrate, and silicate), Chlorophyll & Zooplankton Biomass

    As with previous works, ocean profile data from 'observed' depth levels are vertically interpolated to standard depth levels. Thirty-three (33) standard depth levels extend from the sea surface to 5500 meter depth. Zooplankton biomass is from the sea surface to 200 meter depth. Several statistics are computed, by one-degree and five-degree squares, for the world ocean at each standard depth level and for various climatological, all-data, compositing periods (annual, seasonal and monthly). The statistics computed include the number of observations of each variable, the arithmetic mean (referred to as "unanalyzed mean"), the standard deviation about the arithmetic mean of each variable, and the standard error of the mean of each variable.

    The data used to generate these statistics are available on CD-ROM as the World Ocean Database 2001 (WOD01). Color images of the annual, seasonal and monthly values at standard depths are available on DVD as the World Ocean Atlas Figures 2001.

    Access & Use Information

    License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Date 2024-08-22T13:10:06Z
    Metadata Created Date July 2, 2021
    Metadata Updated Date March 1, 2025
    Reference Date(s) April 11, 2013 (publication), January 11, 2022 (revision)
    Frequency Of Update asNeeded

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NOAA/NESDIS/ncei/accessions

    Other Data Resources

    Graphic Preview

    Preview graphic

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Date 2024-08-22T13:10:06Z
    Metadata Created Date July 2, 2021
    Metadata Updated Date March 1, 2025
    Reference Date(s) April 11, 2013 (publication), January 11, 2022 (revision)
    Responsible Party (Point of Contact)
    Contact Email
    Guid gov.noaa.nodc:0095600
    Access Constraints Cite as: Levitus, Sydney; US National Oceanographic Data Center (2013). NODC Standard Product: World Ocean Atlas 2001 (6 disc set) (NCEI Accession 0095600). [indicate subset used]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/0095600. Accessed [date]., Use liability: NOAA and NCEI cannot provide any warranty as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of furnished data. Users assume responsibility to determine the usability of these data. The user is responsible for the results of any application of this data for other than its intended purpose.
    Bbox East Long 180
    Bbox North Lat 90
    Bbox South Lat -90
    Bbox West Long -180
    Coupled Resource
    Frequency Of Update asNeeded
    Graphic Preview Description Preview graphic
    Graphic Preview File https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/metadata/landing-page/bin/gfx?id=gov.noaa.nodc:0095600
    Graphic Preview Type PNG
    Harvest Object Id 19b079af-b00a-4c7d-904f-bc4839654dc3
    Harvest Source Id c084a438-6f6b-470d-93e0-16aeddb9f513
    Harvest Source Title NOAA/NESDIS/ncei/accessions
    Licence accessLevel: Public
    Lineage
    Metadata Language eng
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-180.0, -90.0], [180.0, -90.0], [180.0, 90.0], [-180.0, 90.0], [-180.0, -90.0]]]}
    Progress completed
    Spatial Data Service Type
    Spatial Reference System
    Spatial Harvester True
    Temporal Extent Begin 1773-01-13
    Temporal Extent End 2001-06-29

    Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.