Ocean Carbon Dioxide

Rising atmospheric CO₂ and climate change are increasing ocean temperatures and affecting ocean chemistry (for example, ocean acidification). Monitoring these important changes using ships and other platforms generates large amounts of data from heterogenous sources. Since its inception in 1993 as the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center(CDIAC) Ocean Carbon Data Management Project, OCADS has been organizing, quality assuring, documenting, archiving and disseminating ocean carbon-related data collected via a number of U.S. and international ocean-observing programs.

The OCADS ocean carbon data collection includes discrete and underway measurements from a variety of platforms (including research ships, commercial ships, and buoys). The measurements come from deep and shallow waters from all oceans. Technological advances make it possible to deliver ocean carbon data real-time but questions about instrument reliability and data quality limit this practice at this moment. All ocean carbon data OCADS receives is provided by individual investigators and groups, following initial data review.

Subsurface/Bottle Data

Surface / Underway Data

Time-series and Autonomous Platform Data

Coastal Carbon Data