Ocean Climate Laboratory Team

The Ocean Climate Laboratory Team (OCL) is a team within the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). The primary objectives of the OCL are to:

• Improve the quality of the NCEI's oceanographic data archives by using the data to perform scientific analyses
• Develop improved ocean climatologies for annual, seasonal, and monthly compositing periods
• Investigate interannual-to-decadal ocean climate variability using historical oceanographic data
• Build scientifically, quality-controlled global oceanographic databases
• Facilitate international exchange of oceanographic data

The OCL includes World Data Center for Oceanography, Silver Spring (WDC). Operated under the auspices of the U.S. Academy of Sciences, WDC is one of the U.S. discipline subcenters within the World Data Center system. There are two other World Data Centers for Oceanography: World Data Center for Oceanography in Obninsk (Russia), and World Data Center for Oceanography in Tianjin (People's Republic of China).

The OCL directs the international Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue (GODAR) Project. Initiated by the NODC and WDC, this project was subsequently endorsed by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. The GODAR Project has resulted in an increase of over eight million historical ocean temperature casts, 200,000 plankton casts, as well as many other data.

All data are made available internationally without restriction consistent with the data policy of World Data System.