«The rate of ocean heat gain during the past eight years is not unusual — indeed many
studies of ocean data over the past 50 years and longer have produced similar rates.
NASA: A new NASA and university
analysis of ocean data collected more than 135 years ago by the crew of the HMS Challenger oceanographic expedition provides further confirmation that human activities have warmed our planet over the past century.
The sheer amount
of ocean data collected every year is staggering, but without a central location for sharing it all, it can be hard for scientists to easily get their hands on the data that they may need to further their studies.
For example, due to the
lack of ocean data, secondary data is often used to infer what the ocean is doing — thus, the AMO analysis relies not on ocean temperature measurements, but rather on air pressure measurements as a proxy for ocean behavior — iffy at best.
Carl Wunsch's concern over the
sparsity of the ocean data, as expressed in his recent papers, is mostly related to the part of the ocean below 2000 m (the abyssal ocean).
The NODCs were provided with equipment and software as well as seed funds to support their operations, and enable them setup infrastructure for management and
exchange of ocean data and information.