The oceanographic part of the ACSIS (North Atlantic Climate System Integrated Study) project uses sustained observations from the North Atlantic, gathered during other observational programs, such as RAPID, Argo and OSNAP, to generate ocean heat budgets. The overarching objective of the ACSIS project is to enhance the UK’s capability to detect, attribute and predict changes in the North Atlantic Climate System, comprising: the North Atlantic Ocean, the atmosphere above it including its composition, and interactions with Arctic Sea Ice and the Greenland Ice Sheet. The data will be combined with models to develop new products. ACSIS is delivered by a partnership between six NERC Centres, National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS), National Oceangraphy Centre (NOC), British Antarctic Survey (BAS), National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO), Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM), Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) and the UK Met Office. ACSIS has been fully funded for five years (2016-2021) through the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Long Term Science commissioning, which aims to encourage its research centres to work closely together to tackle major scientific and societal challenges. The oceanographic data are held by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC), the atmospheric, cryospheric and model data are held by the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA).

The dataset contains a variety of atmospheric measurements including time series of air temperature, wind speed and direction, precipitation, irradiance and humidity. A comprehensive atmospheric sampling programme provided measurements of atmospheric particulates, aerosols and gases, including hydrocarbons, nitrogen, oxygen, ozone and sulphur species, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrous and hydrochloric acids. Additional measurements of photolysis rates and ion and radical concentrations were also collected. The data were collected from the vicinity of the north Norfolk coast between 1994 and 1997. The bulk of the data were collected during two field campaigns in the winter (October/November) of 1994 and the summer (May/June) of 1995. During these campaigns data were collected continuously from the University of East Anglia (UEA) Atmospheric Observatory at Weybourne on the north Norfolk coast. The widest range of parameters is available for this station. An instrumented vessel (MV Guardian) was stationed offshore to provide a second sampling site to allow changes in a given air mass to be monitored. The Imperial College London Jetstream Research aircraft made one flight during each campaign to provide a link between the two surface stations and four additional flights in 1996 and 1997. The River-Atmosphere-Coast Study (RACS) was the component of the LOIS programme looking at processes from the river catchment into the coastal sea. Professor John Plane from the Environmental Sciences Department at UEA was the scientific co-ordinator of this sub-project of LOIS. The data are held by BODC as a series of ASCII data files conforming to the NASA AMES 1001 format together with a PDF document that describes the data set.

The CARBON-OPS data set comprises partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) and ancilliary parameters, measured aboard selected UK research vessels between 2007 and 2008. The parameter suite includes geographical position; partial pressure and fugacity of CO2; sea surface temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen concentration; air pressure, temperature and humidity; occasionally the parameter suite also includes fluorescence, transmittance, wind speed and direction. CARBON-OPS, led by Nick Hardman-Mountford at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council under the Knowledge Transfer initiative (2007-2009). The aim of the project was to develop an automated supply chain of ocean surface and atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements from research ships to operational end-users. The data were first provided in near real-time following an initial level of automated quality control and processing. Following a secondary level of manual quality control and processing (delayed mode) the data are integrated into the BODC National Oceanographic Database. Measurements were taken aboard five UK research vessels: RRS Discovery, RRS James Clark Ross; RRS James Cook; RV Plymouth Quest; and RV Prince Madog.

The UK Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study (UK SOLAS) marine fieldwork data set comprises all data, marine or otherwise, collected during sea-going activities. The fieldwork included eight dedicated research cruises in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean, spanning the period 2006-2008. These cross-disciplinary missions resulted in a diverse data catalogue. This includes meteorology (3-D wind speed and direction, total irradiance, Photosynthetically Active Radiation/PAR, air temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, aerosol optical thickness); atmospheric composition (carbon dioxide concentration, aerosol particle counts and size spectra, chemical analyses of aerosol particle composition, cloud condensation nuclei/CCN, concentrations of pollutants such as black carbon, concentrations of free radical species such as iodine monoxide and nitrate radicals); chemical and energy-fluxes across the air-sea boundary (dust deposition rates, oxygen and nitrogen fluxes, carbon dioxide fluxes, sensible heat fluxes, latent heat fluxes, momentum fluxes); biological, chemical and physical properties and processes in the sea surface micro-layer (chlorophyll concentration, bacterial production, phytoplankton and bacterial speciation, concentrations of biogenic trace compounds such as halocarbons, nitrous oxide, dimethyl sulphide/DMS and alcohols, surfactant concentrations, halogen concentrations such as iodine, iodide and iodate); biological, chemical and photochemical properties and processes in the ocean subsurface (primary productivity, trace gas production, plankton community composition, nutrient concentration, concentrations of trace metals such as iron, aluminium, manganese, magnesium and cobalt, ligand and complex metal chemistry parameters such as heme, dust dissolution, salinity, temperature, amino acids and urea, carbonate system chemistry including alkalinity); and sea-state physics (breaking waves, wave slope, whitecaps, bubble size spectra, aerosol formation, subsurface acoustics). Additionally, time series of air-sea fluxes were measured from the Norwegian weather ship, Polarfront, between 2006 and 2009. UK SOLAS scientists also participated in the Bergen Mesocosm experiment during 2008. This simulated gas exchanges and biological, chemical and photochemical properties and processes in the sea surface micro-layer under controlled conditions. The study united atmospheric and marine scientists from institutions across the UK and international collaborators. The UK SOLAS data set was intended to advance understanding of the mutual interactions between the atmosphere and the oceans, especially the chemical exchanges that affect ocean productivity, atmospheric composition and climate. It was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council, as the UK's contribution to the international Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS). The data are held at the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) and have been incorporated into the National Oceanographic Database (NODB). Data collected from non-ship based activities, for example land-based atmospheric data and data resulting from campaigns using the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) aircraft are held at the British Atmospheric Data Centre (BADC).