Electronic atlas of WOCE hdrographic and tracer data now available

As part of the World Climate Research Programme, the World OceanCirculation Experiment (WOCE) has produced during the last decade aglobal set of hydrographic, nutrient and tracer data that is ofunprecedented quality and quantity. Large parts of this dataset arenow publicly available and are being used for general oceanographicresearch and climate studies. However, wide-spread use of thecombined WOCE dataset is hampered by the fact that the data residein many separate data files and by the complexity of the fileformat.In an effort to facilitate the use of the global WOCE dataset, allcurrently released data of the WOCE Hydrographic Programme (WHP)have been compiled into an integrated dataset. Together with theOcean Data View visualization software for Windows, thisdataset constitutes an ``Electronic Atlas of WOCE Data''(eWOCE) that allows the graphical display and interactive analysisof the data in many different ways. Because of extensiveinteractive controls like, for instance, user-defined plotconfiguration, zooming, auto-scaling, color adjustment andstation/sample selection, this electronic atlas complements and goesbeyond the printed atlases that are being prepared now.More than 200 property distributions along WHP sections are providedwith eWOCE. Starting from these template plots, users can easilyproduce (1) arbitrary property/property plots, (2) distributions ongeneral iso-surfaces, (3) property difference distributions betweenrepeats, (4) time-series plots, (5) geostrophic velocity sectionsand many other plot types. With eWOCE, the data can either bepresented as color-shaded and/or contoured fields or as coloredsymbols or numbers at the measurement locations. In addition to themeasured, basic variables, a large number of derived quantities canbe calculated and analyzed just as the basic variables. The WOCEdata collection can be extended easily: data from the WorldOcean Atlas 1994, the World Ocean Database 1998 and otherpopular data formats can be imported without modification. Asadd-ons, eWOCE comes with a gazetteer of WOCE sections andwith the GEBCO (General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans) gazetteerof undersea features which allow easy identification of sections andtopographic features. In addition to research applications,eWOCE can be useful for teaching and training.For more information on eWOCE visit the Web page http://www.awi-bremerhaven.de/GEO/eWOCE