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WOCE-MET 2000 Surface Meteorology Data

The WOCE Data Assembly Center/Special Analysis Center (DAC/SAC) for surface meteorology data (hereafter referred to as WOCE-MET) was established at the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS), Florida State University (FSU) in order to collect, check, and distribute all underway surface meteorological data recorded during WOCE. We are very pleased to present all currently available, quality controlled data to the WOCE community.

The WOCE-MET web site provides access to the most complete, documented, and up-to-date collection of surface meteorology data available for the WOCE project. It should be considered the definitive source for WOCE-related data of this type. The underway meteorology data includes values spanning the range from high temporal resolution automated systems to standard bridge observations. Approximately 80 million individual measurements have been processed. A histogram presents the number of observation available for each month and year from 1988 to 1998.

The following hydrographic sections have data available. In addition, surface stress and turbulent flux fields created by the WOCE-MET Special Analysis Center can be accessed from this site.

Number of Datasets Available for each Hydrographic Section

In addition to the list of hydrographic sections, maps showing the spatial distribution of all available meteorology data are provided. These maps, which cover the period from 1988 thru 1998, are color coded by the time resolution of the meteorological data. We hope these maps will help the user to identify whether data are available for a specific region of the ocean and whether the temporal spacing will be suitable for their purpose.

All of the available research vessel surface meteorology data have been quality-controlled. Details of the quality control (QC) process are available in a QC Handbook (also available as a hardcopy report). These data are available in two formats, ASCII and netCDF for ease in processing. The content of the files is identical, only the format differs.

The following table lists the main informational pages and briefly describes the data and documents accessible from each page:

Info Pages Contents
DATA All data in NetCDF and ASCII format with QC reports
TOOLS/UTILITIES Useful program listings for processing our data.
HANDBOOK Hypertext version of the QC Handbook including figures
DOCUMENTS All necessary information (e.g. formats, units convention, etc) to read the data files



Available files have long names with the meteorology data files using WOCE-MET's naming convention. DOS users will have to shorten file names accordingly. All PDF documents have been tested with version 3.0, and no assurance is made for other versions. If problems arise, please contact us at one of the addresses listed below. WOCE-MET utilizes a number of suffixes which denote the following file types:


We wish to acknowledge the many people responsible for the data collection and quality control that made this possible. Our Acknowledgments include a list of all our data providers, their institutes, and the chief scientists organized by research vessel.

Support for WOCE-MET was provided by the National Science Foundation/Physical Oceanography Section, grant OCE-9818727. COAPS receives its base funding from the Physical Oceanography Section of the Office of Naval Research.


Questions regarding the contents of this archive should be addressed to the WOCE-MET office:

Attn: WOCE Surface Meteorology DAC/SAC
Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) 
Florida State University 
2000 Levy Avenue 
Building A, Suite 292
Tallahassee, FL 32306-2741

Email: wocemet@coaps.fsu.edu

(850) 644-6918 (Voice)
(850) 644-4841 (Fax)

Anonymous FTP: ftp.coaps.fsu.edu/pub/woce
WWW: WOCE



Last Updated Tuesday, 18 December 2001