Science Highlight

The Surface Ocean CO₂ Atlas (SOCAT)

SOCAT is a global compilation of underway surface water fCO₂ (fugacity of CO₂) data with 6.3 million measurements from 1851 cruises run between 1968 and 2007 by more than 10 countries.

SOCAT brings together, in a common format, all publicly available surface water data from the global oceans, including the Arctic, and the coastal seas. All data are evaluated for data quality using methods that are transparent and fully documented on SOCAT website.

Colleagues are strongly encouraged to use the Atlas (http://www.socat.info/) and to submit their quality controlled surface water fCO₂ data to CDIAC for inclusion in future SOCAT releases. We simply ask that you acknowledge the SOCAT project and let us know if you publish a manuscript based on the Atlas.

Please provide any feedback or ideas via the SOCAT website.

Version 1.5 was publicly released mid September 2011.