The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) is a national facility for looking after and distributing

data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted ...

about the marine environment. BODC is the designated marine science data centre for the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and part of the

National Oceanography Centre The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is a marine science research and technology institution based on two sites in Southampton and Liverpool, United Kingdom. It is the UK’s largest institution for integrated sea level science, coastal and ...

(NOC) — primarily at its facility in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, with small number of its staff in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. The centre provides a resource for science, education and industry, as well as the general public. Bidston Observatory

History

The origins of BODC go back to 1969 when NERC created the British Oceanographic Data Service (BODS). Located at the National Institute of

Oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...

, Wormley in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, its purpose was to: * Act as the UK's National Oceanographic Data Centre * Participate in the international exchange of data as part of the

Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC/UNESCO) was established by resolution 2.31 adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO. It first met in Paris at Unesco Headquarters from 19 to 27 October 1961. Initially, 40 States becam ...

(IOC) network of national data centres In 1975, BODS was transferred to Bidston Observatory on the Wirral, near Liverpool, as part of the newly formed Institute of Oceanographic Sciences. The following year BODS became the Marine Information and Advisory Service (MIA

Its primary activity was to manage the data collected from weather ships, Oil platform, oil rigs and data buoys. The data banking component of MIAS was restructured to form BODC in April 1989. Its mission was to 'operate as a world-class data centre in support of UK marine science'. BODC pioneered a start to finish approach to marine data management. This involved: * Assisting in the collection of data at sea * Quality control of data * Assembling the data for use by the scientists * The publication of data sets on

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

In December 2004, BODC moved to the purpose-built

Joseph Proudman Joseph Proudman (30 December 1888 – 26 June 1975), CBE, FRS was a distinguished British mathematician and oceanographer of international repute. His theoretical studies into the oceanic tides not only "solved practically all the remaining ...

Building on the campus of the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

. A smaller number of its staff are based in the

(NOC), Southampton.

Aims

* Work alongside scientists during marine research projects * Provide quality control and archiving of oceanographic data * Maintain an online source of information and improve public access to marine data * Provide innovative marine data products

National role

BODC is one of five designated data centres that make up the NERC Environmental Data Service
NERC EDS
and manage NERC's environmental data. The BODC has a number of national roles and responsibilities: * Performing data management for NERC-funded marine projects * Maintaining and developing its archive of marine data, the National Oceanographic Database (NODB) * Managing, checking and archiving data from

tide gauge A tide gauge is a device for measuring the change in sea level relative to a vertical datum. It its also known as mareograph, marigraph, sea-level recorder and limnimeter. When applied to freshwater continental water bodies, the instrument may ...

s around the UK coast for the National Tide Gauge Network, which aims to obtain high quality

tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

information and to provide warning of possible flooding of coastal areas around the British Isles. This is part of the National Tidal & Sea Level Facility (NTSLF) * Hosting the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network
MEDIN
* Working in partnership with other NERC marine research centres: **

British Antarctic Survey The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is the United Kingdom's national polar research institute. It has a dual purpose, to conduct polar science, enabling better understanding of global issues, and to provide an active presence in the Antarctic on ...

(BAS) **

(NOC), Liverpool, formerly

Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory The former Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL) is based in Brownlow Street, Liverpool, England. In April 2010, POL merged with the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) to form the National Oceanography Centre. The Liverpool labora ...

(POL) **

(NOC), Southampton **

Plymouth Marine Laboratory Plymouth Marine Laboratory (abbreviated as PML) in the city of Plymouth, England, is a marine research organization and registered charity. It is a partner of the UK Research & Innovation's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). PML's chai ...

(PML) **

Scottish Association for Marine Science The Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) is one of Europe's leading marine science research organisations, one of the oldest oceanographic organisations in the world and is Scotland's largest and oldest independent marine science org ...

(SAMS) **

Sea Mammal Research Unit The Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) is a marine science research organisation in Fife, Scotland. It provides the UK's main science capability in the field of marine mammal biology. It is located at the Gatty Marine Laboratory, part of the Univers ...

(SMRU)

International role

BODC's international roles and responsibilities include: * Contributing to the

International Council for the Exploration of the Sea The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES; french: Conseil International de l'Exploration de la Mer, ''CIEM'') is a regional fishery advisory body and the world's oldest intergovernmental science organization. ICES is headqu ...

(ICES) Marine Data Management * Creating, maintaining and publishing the

General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans The General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) is a publicly available bathymetric chart of the world's oceans. The project was conceived with the aim of preparing a global series of charts showing the general shape of the seafloor. Over the ...

(GEBCO) Digital Atlas * BODC is one of over 60 national oceanographic data centres that form part of the IOC International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE)

Projects and initiatives

The following are a selection of the projects that BODC is or has been involved with: : * Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) :The AMT programm

undertook a twice yearly

transect A transect is a path along which one counts and records occurrences of the objects of study (e.g. plants). There are several types of transect. Some are more effective than others. It requires an observer to move along a fixed path and to count ...

between the UK and the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...

to study the factors determining the

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and

biogeochemical Biogeochemistry is the scientific discipline that involves the study of the chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natural environment (including the biosphere, the cryosphere, th ...

variability in the

planktonic Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a crucia ...

ecosystems An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

. * Data Assembly Centre (DAC) for UK Argo :The International Argo progra

measures water properties across the world’s ocean using a fleet of robotic instruments that drift with the ocean currents and move up and down between the surface and a mid-water level. Arg

data has hugely increased our capability to measure ocean heat content and feeds into weather forecasting at the

Met Office The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelope E ...

* Autosub Under Ice (AUI) :The AUI programm

investigated the role of sub-ice shelf processes in the

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...

system. The marine environment beneath floating

ice shelves An ice shelf is a large floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface. Ice shelves are only found in Antarctica, Greenland, Northern Canada, and the Russian Arctic. The b ...

was explored using Autosub, an AUV. * Marine Productivity (MarProd) :MarPro

helped to develop coupled Computer simulation, models and observation systems for the

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or wa ...

ecosystem, with emphasis on the physical factors affecting

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

dynamics. * Rapid Climate Change (RAPID) :The RAPID programm

aimed to improve understanding of the causes of sudden changes in the Earth's climate. * Ocean Margin Exchange (OMEX) :The OMEX projec

studied, measured and modelled the physical, chemical and biological processes and fluxes at the ocean margin – the interface between the open

Atlantic ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

and the European

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

. * SeaDataNet :

SeaDataNet SeaDataNet is an international project of oceanography. Its main goal is to enable the scientific community to access historical datasets owned by national data centers. Description This project aims to provide a web service permitting to ret ...

br>
aims to develop a

standardised Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardization ...

, distributed system providing transparent access to marine data sets and data products from countries in and around

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. *System of Industry Metocean data for the Offshore and Research Communities (SIMORC) :SIMOR

aimed to create a central index and database of

metocean In offshore and coastal engineering, metocean refers to the syllabic abbreviation of meteorology and (physical) oceanography. Metocean study In various stages of an offshore or coastal engineering project a metocean study will be undertaken. ...

data sets collected globally by the oil and gas industry. *Vocabulary Server :BODC operates the NERC Vocabulary Server Web Servic

which provides access to Controlled vocabulary, controlled vocabularies of relevance to the scientific community.

External links

BODC homepage

BODC News and events

Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) homepage

NERC Data centres

NERC Data Discovery Service

National Tidal and Sea Level Facility (NTSLF)
{{Authority control Data centers Environment of the United Kingdom Environmental science Information technology organisations based in the United Kingdom Oceanography Marine biology Marine geology Natural Environment Research Council Oceanographic organizations Organisations based in Liverpool Research institutes in Merseyside Scientific organisations based in the United Kingdom 1969 establishments in the United Kingdom Scientific organizations established in 1969