Editing World Ocean Database Project (section)

==Comparison of World Ocean Databases==
The World Ocean Database was first released in 1994<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/indpub.html#World%20Ocean%20Atlas%201994 |title=World Ocean Atlas 1994 series |publisher=[[National Oceanographic Data Center]]}}</ref> and updates have been released approximately every four years, 1998,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/indpub.html#World%20Ocean%20Atlas%201998 |title=World Ocean Atlas 1998 series |publisher=[[National Oceanographic Data Center]]}}</ref> 2001,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/WOA01/pr_woa01.html |title=World Ocean Atlas 2001 |publisher=[[National Oceanographic Data Center]]}}</ref> and 2005.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/WOA05/pr_woa05.html |title=World Ocean Atlas 2005 |publisher=[[National Oceanographic Data Center]]}}</ref> The most recent World Ocean Database series, WOD09, was released in September 2009.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/WOA09/pr_woa09.html |title=World Ocean Atlas 2009 |publisher=[[National Oceanographic Data Center]]}}</ref> The WOD09 has more than 9 million temperature profiles and 3.6 million salinity profiles. The table shows a comparison of the number of stations by instrument type in WOD09 with previous NODC/WDC global ocean databases.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto;"
|-
! Instrument Type !! NODC (1974)<ref>Based on statistics from Levitus, S. (1982) {{cite web|url=ftp://ftp.nodc.noaa.gov/pub/data.nodc/woa/PUBLICATIONS/levitus_atlas_1982.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190804213632/ftp://ftp.nodc.noaa.gov/pub/data.nodc/woa/PUBLICATIONS/levitus_atlas_1982.pdf |archive-date=2019-08-04 |url-status=dead |title=Climatological Atlas of the World Ocean }}, [[NOAA]] Professional Paper No. 13, pp. 191</ref> !! NODC (1991)<ref>Based on NODC Temperature Profile CD-ROM</ref> !! WOA94 !! WOD98 !! WOD01 !! WOD05 !! WOD09
|- style="text-align: right;" 
| OSD <ref>WOD09 OSD dataset includes data from 121,763 low-resolution CTD casts and 1,489 low-resolution XCTD casts</ref> || 425,000 || 783,912 || 1,194,407 || 1,373,440 || 2,121,042 || 2,258,437 || 2,541,298
|- style="text-align: right;"
| CTD <ref>WOD09 CTD dataset includes data from 5,985 high-resolution XCTD casts</ref> || na || 66,450 || 89,000 || 189,555 || 311,943 || 443,953 || 641,845
|- style="text-align: right;"
| MBT <ref>WOD09 MBT dataset includes data from 80,325 DBT profiles and 5,659 Micro-BT profiles</ref> || 775,000 || 980,377 || 1,922,170 || 2,077,200 || 2,376,206 || 2,421,940 || 2,426,749
|- style="text-align: right;"
| XBT || 290,000 || 704,424 || 1,281,942 || 1,537,203 || 1,743,590 || 1,930,413 || 2,104,490
|- style="text-align: right;"
| MRB || na || na || na || 107,715 || 297,936 || 445,371 || 566,544
|- style="text-align: right;"
| DRB || na || na || na || na || 50,549 || 108,564 || 121,828
|- style="text-align: right;"
| PFL || na || na || na || na || 22,637 || 168,988 || 547,985
|- style="text-align: right;"
| UOR || na || na || na || na || 37,645 || 46,699 || 88,190
|- style="text-align: right;"
| APB || na || na || na || na || 75,665 || 75,665 || 88,583
|- style="text-align: right;"
| GLD || na || na || na || na || na || 338 || 5,857
|- style="text-align: right;"
|'''Total Stations''' || '''1,490,000''' || '''2,535,163''' || '''4,487,519''' || '''5,285,113''' || '''7,037,213''' || '''7,900,368''' || '''9,133,369'''
|- style="text-align: right;"
| Plankton || na || na || na || 83,650 || 142,900 || 150,250 || 218,695
|- style="text-align: right;"
| SUR <ref>Surface data are represented differently than profile data in WOD09 – all observations in a single cruise are combined into one “station” with zero depth, values of measured variables along with latitude, longitude, and Julian year-day to identify and locate individual sets of observations</ref> || na || na || na || na || 4,743 || 9,178 || 9,178
|}