Global Ocean Data Analysis Project

The central goal of GLODAP is to generate a global climatology of the World Ocean's carbon cycle for use in studies of both its natural and anthropogenically forced states.

[1] The fields consist of three-dimensional, objectively-analysed global grids at 1° horizontal resolution, interpolated onto 33 standardised vertical intervals[2] from the surface (0 m) to the abyssal seafloor (5500 m).

In terms of temporal resolution, the relative scarcity of the source data mean that, unlike the World Ocean Atlas, averaged fields are only produced for the annual time-scale.

GLODAP used a mathematical technique known as C* (C-star)[5] to deconvolute anthropogenic from natural DIC (there are a number of alternative methods).

Anthropogenic carbon was estimated in GLODAPv2 using a "transit-time distribution" (TTD) method (an approach using a Green's function).