WMO Marine Climatological Summary

The WMO Marine Climatological Summary Scheme is the international framework, run under the World Meteorological Organization, for collecting, quality-controlling, and publishing climatological summaries of marine surface observations from ships. Voluntary Observing Ships report wind, pressure, air and sea temperature, waves, and present weather, and designated Global Collecting Centres and responsible members compile these into the Marine Climatological Summaries and the underlying International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set, ICOADS. The resulting long records, some extending back to the nineteenth century, anchor marine climatology, wind and wave statistics for route design, and the sea-surface temperature series used in reanalyses.