World Ocean Database 2023: A Foundational Data Resource for and by the Global Ocean and Coastal Communities

The World Ocean Database 2023 (WOD23) is the world's most complete and representative digital collection to date of near real time and delayed mode oceanographic in situ profile measurements collected from ocean observing systems over the 1772 to 2022 instrumental record. It is a collection of irreplaceable data records containing ~18.6 million water column profiles with ~3.6 billion measurements of 27 commonly measured physical and chemical variables, including 17 essential ocean and 11 climate variables, ~22.7 million meteorological and sea state observations, and more than 245 thousand plankton tows. WOD23 serves as a foundational and reliable data resource by and for global marine communities by making globally scattered and heterogeneous data FAIR, uniformly formatted, quality controlled, and searchable by means of extensive granular metadata. The data were sourced from long-term archived primary data, thus preserving its provenance, traceability, and authoritativeness. New and updated data are made available as quarterly updates to WOD23. The data are used in research applications, including earth system models, climate data reanalysis, and diagnostic studies. WOD23 is an activity of the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange, World Data System, and Center for Marine Meteorology and Ocean Climate Data.