The Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (COADS)

COADS is developed and maintained as a cooperative effort between NSF's National Center for Atmospheric Research  (NCAR) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): specifically its Climate Diagnostics Center (CDC) , in conjunction with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)  of the University of Colorado, and its National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).

COADS is a collection of global marine surface observationsfor 1784-1997 and monthly summary statistics of the observations currently for 1800-1997.   The observations are taken primarily from ships (merchant, ocean research, fishing, navy, etc) and moored and drifting buoys.   Many sources of real time and delayed mode data are included.   The data, documentation, and a wide assortment of ancillary information are available from the contributing organizations. The COADS highlights at NCAR, CDC/CIRES, and NCDC are briefly outlined below.

• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

 
• Copies of all COADS current and past archive versions
• File identification on the MSS, software, and documentation for NCAR computer users are given in separate  datasets for the Observations  and  Monthly Summary Statistics of the observations in 1° and 2° areas.
•  Online data request forms.  All data is available to the public and can be requested with these convenient forms or by direct email.
• Questions regarding availability and COADS in general can be directed to Steve Worley

 
• Climate Diagnostics Center (CDC and CIRES)

 
•  The official COADS WWW site. The site is the focus for the COADS project and includes chronology and news, project description, available products, documentation, software, metadata, publications and meeting announcements.
• Access to COADS monthly summary data products in netCDF format.  Some online display and product subsetting are offered.
• COADS-like archives for the most popular variables are constructed from real time data sources and are available online.  These data are provided to supplement COADS  to near real time dates.
• Question regarding availability and COADS in general can be directed to Scott Woodruff
  
  
• The National Center for Climatic Data (NCDC)
  
  
• Ordering interfaces are now under development (31 March, 2001)