Editing World Ocean Database Project (section)

{{short description|International collection of ocean profile-plankton data}}
The '''World Ocean Database Project''', or '''WOD''', is a project established by the [[Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission]] (IOC). The project leader was Sydney Levitus, who was also director of the [[International Council for Science]] (ICSU) World Data Center (WDC) for Oceanography, Silver Spring.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ioc-unesco.org/index.php?option=com_oe&task=viewDocumentRecord&docID=1102|title=Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission|website=www.ioc-unesco.org|language=en-gb|access-date=2017-07-18}}</ref> Sydney Levitus retired in 2013.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mishnov |first=Alexey |date=July 2019 |title=World Ocean Atlas 2018 Volume 4: Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients (phosphate, nitrate and nitrate+nitrite, silicate) |url=https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/woa18_vol4.pdf |access-date=June 7, 2024 |website=NOAA NCEI |page=4 
|quote=He retired in 2013 after 39 years of distinguished civil service. }}</ref> In recognition of the success of the IOC [[Global Oceanographic Data Archaeological and Rescue Project]] (GODAR project), a proposal was presented at the 16th Session of the Committee on [[International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange]] (IODE), which was held in [[Lisbon, Portugal]], in October–November 2000, to establish the World Ocean Database Project. This project is intended to stimulate international exchange of modern oceanographic data and encourage the development of regional oceanographic databases as well as the implementation of regional quality control procedures. This new Project was endorsed by the IODE at the conclusion of the Portugal meeting, and the IOC subsequently approved this project in June 2001.

The World Ocean Database represents the world's largest collection of ocean profile-plankton data available internationally without restriction. Data comes from the: (a) Sixty-five National Oceanographic Data Centers and nine Designated National Agencies (DNAs) (in Croatia, Finland, Georgia, Malaysia, Romania, Senegal, Sweden, Tanzania, and Ukraine), (b) International Ocean Observing Projects such as the completed [[World Ocean Circulation Experiment]] (WOCE) and Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), as well as currently active programs such as [[CLIVAR]] and Argo, (c) International Ocean Data Management Projects such as the IOC/IODE Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue Project (GODAR), and (d) Real-time Ocean Observing Systems such as the IOC/IODE [[Global Temperature-Salinity Profile Program|Global Temperature-Salinity Profile Project]] (GTSPP). All ocean data acquired by WDC Silver Spring – USA are considered as part of the WDC archive and are freely available as public domain data.