Welcome to the Java OceanAtlas Suite

About the Java OceanAtlas Suite

The Java OceanSuite includes

• Downloads, documentation and support files for the Java OceanAtlas (JOA) application for Windows and MacOS,
• an extensive collection of groomed World Ocean vertical profile water sample and CTD data in ASCII WHP-Exchange and JOA binary formats,
• a virtual research cruise to the far southeast Indian Ocean aboard SIO's R/V Roger Revelle, and
• suggestions and support for data analysis and exploration projects.

About Java OceanAtlas

Java OceanAtlas (JOA) is a Java application for Windows and MacOS which provides an ad hoc (rather than pre-set) graphic exploration environment optimized to examine and plot oceanographic profile data. JOA works with any pressure- or depth-indexed data, for example 'WHP-Exchange' data, such as from the CLIVAR and Carbon Hydrographic Data Office (CCHDO;https://cchdo.ucsd.edu).

Java OceanAtlas plots include property-property plots, maps, offset profiles (waterfall), contour plots, and plots of calculated values, using color-by-property-value as a plotted variable to aid interpretation. There is also a comprehensive data display window and extensive support for data editing and quality control functions. All Java OceanAtlas plots and the data window are linked and may be ‘browsed’ jointly by sample and/or station. Plots can be re-scaled, re-sized, or have their colored variable changed. Selected areas of profile, property-property, contour plots, maps, and station value plots can be extracted into new plots. Standard levels, scales, contours, and colors can be changed via user interfaces similar to those used in commercial applications. Java OceanAtlas provides data filtering and exporting. Many different types of calculations can be performed.

About the Data on the Website

The data provided here were prepared to provide students and researchers a collection of the best available 'blue water' ocean vertical profiles. Most data are in both ASCII WHP-Exchange and Java OceanAtlas binary formats. We have added value to many of these data by organizing sections, by combining and deleting stations, and by correcting some errors. Note that we continually update the data, replacing data files with preferred versions or adding cruises, old and new, to the collection.

The collection 'Best Vertical Section Data' contains some of the finest-quality vertical section bottle and CTD data yet obtained from the World Ocean, from WOCE, CLIVAR, GO-SHIP and other programs of similar focus and quality. Includes a compilation of matched section segments - crossings of the same path in one basin or region from different years.

The collection 'World Ocean Atlas Data' contains vertical profile data extracted for mapping and vertical sections from various iterations of the NOAA/NCEI/NODC World Ocean Atlas data, originally on standard level surfaces on a 1-degree positional grid for the World Ocean.

The collection 'Other Data Files' contains ≈2200 vertical sections from the original NODC data files contributing to SIO Professor Joseph Reid's pre-WOCE (pre-1990s) World Ocean data collection, an assortment of other pre-WOCE vertical section data of interest, a collection of Arctic Ocean and Nordic Seas data, and a special collection of data files meant to be used, chapter by chapter, with the DPO JOA Examples which accompany the Talley et al. textbook,Descriptive Physical Oceanography.

    J.Swift