The Indian JGOFS programme was conceived in 1991 at a meeting at the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa and subsequently a Steering Committee was constituted by the Department of Ocean Development (DOD) to generate, monitor and implement the programmes of JGOFS (India). It was agreed upon in the steering committee meeting that "the broad goals of JGOFS (India) would be to obtain a better understanding of the carbon cycle and processes regulating it in the adjoining seas of India, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal". A consolidated national JGOFS proposal was submitted to DOD in January 1993 for the first phase of the programme on the Arabian Sea. This was approved by the Committee and financially supported by the DOD.

In the Arabian Sea programme scientists from four national agencies, National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) and Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulations (C-MMACS) were involved. Two mini-cruises and five major cruises were undertaken on board ORV Sagar Kanya in the eastern Arabian Sea as a part of this programme to address these goals.

The parameters measured include water column temperature, salinity and surface meteorological parameters (SST, air temperature, wind speed and direction, dry bulb and wet bulb temperature for humidity and pressure), primary production (¹⁴C based), phytoplankton abundance, POC, zooplankton, microzooplankton, bacteria, nutrients ( nitrate, nitrite, phosphate and silicate) O₂ , TCO₂ , trace gases (N₂ O and CH₄ ), pH, alkalinity, U-Th series radionuclides, fluxes of settling particulate matter and its components (Org.C, total Nitrogen ) using sediment traps and burial fluxes of various biogenic components and elements in the sediments. In addition, concentrations of NO₃ , SO₄ and Pb-210 were also measured in air over the sea surface.

Field campaign for the Arabian Sea JGOFS programme has been completed. Many of the results have been published in national and international journals or are in press.

This CDROM contains all the data generated from this JGOFS-INDIA programme along with information on participants, organisation, important results and achievements and publications which have come out.