Oceanographic Atlas

An oceanographic atlas is a compiled set of gridded climatological fields of ocean properties, built by objectively analyzing quality-controlled in situ profiles onto a regular grid. The World Ocean Atlas (WOA), produced by NOAA NCEI from the World Ocean Database, gives long-term mean temperature, salinity, oxygen, and nutrient fields at standard depths on a one-degree (and quarter-degree) grid with seasonal and monthly climatologies. Atlases supply the initial and boundary conditions and validation reference for ocean and climate models, the reference state for anomaly computation, and the background field for data-assimilation systems. The WOCE Hydrographic Atlas series documents the section-based interior survey.