The data set consists of digital bathymetric contours taken from the International Bathymetric Chart of the Mediterranean (IBCM) chart series. Most of the IBCM sheets depict contours at depths at 0m (coastline), 20m, 50m, 100m, and 200m, and at 200m intervals thereafter, although the actual contours displayed vary slightly from sheet to sheet. The data set is included in the GEBCO Digital Atlas (GDA). Through the GDA software interface the IBCM bathymetric contours can be exported in ASCII or shapefile format. The 10 sheets of the IBCM chart series are on a Mercator Projection at a scale of 1:1 million (at 38 N). The Black Sea is included at a scale of 1:2 million. The IBCM (1st Edition) chart series was published by the Head Department of Navigation and Oceanography of the USSR Ministry of Defence, St. Petersburg, under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO 1981. The bathymetric contours and coastlines from the IBCM sheets were digitised. Error checking and quality control work on the data set was carried out at BODC. The digital data set was first made available in 1988.

Sea surface temperature and salinity data have been collected around British coastal waters and in the North Atlantic between 1963 and 1990. The data were collected by ships regularly plying routes between ports in the British Isles and the Continent, and along routes to the North Atlantic Ocean Weather Stations (OWS). Thirty individual shipping routes have been involved, approximately weekly measurements being taken at intervals ranging from 10 to 50 miles depending on the route. The following list details shipping routes and dates of data collection: Bristol - Finistere (Jan 1963 - Nov 1968); Clyde - OWS Alpha (May 1963 - Feb 1974); Clyde - OWS India (Jan 1963 - Jul 1975); Clyde - OWS Juliet (Jan 1963 - Jul 1975); Clyde - OWS Kilo (Mar 1963 - Dec 1972); Clyde - OWS Lima (Mar 1963 - May 1965, Jul 1975 - Dec 1990); Felixstowe - Rotterdam (Aug 1970 - Dec 1990); Fishguard - Cork (Jan 1963 - Oct 1968); Fishguard - Waterford (Jan 1963 - Dec 1966); Folkstone - Boulogne (Jan 1963 - Aug 1966); Heysham - Belfast (Feb 1965 - May 1977); Holyhead - Kish (Jan 1963 - Feb 1966); Hull - Kristiansand (Jan 1963 - May 1976); Larne - Stranraer (Jan 1963 - Feb 1966, Jan 1971 - Dec 1986); Leith - Bremen (Jan 1963 - Apr 1972); Leith - Copenhagen (Jan 1963 - Mar 1968); Liverpool - Belfast (Dec 1970 - Nov 1978); Liverpool - Douglas (Mar 1965 - Nov 1968); Liverpool - Dublin (Mar 1965 - Aug 1979); Liverpool - Larne (Jan 1987 - Dec 1988); Newhaven - Dieppe (Apr 1963 - Feb 1990); Scilly - Shamrock (May 1967 - Mar 1974); Southampton - Le Havre (Jan 1963 - May 1964); Southampton - St. Malo (May 1963 - Sep 1964); Swansea - Cork (May 1970 - Mar 1979); Weymouth - Channel Islands (Nov 1970 - Nov 1985); Weymouth - Cherbourg (Apr 1986 - Sep 1986); Whitehaven - Anglesey (Feb 1965 - Jan 1969). These observations provide useful information on the seasonal and short-term variability of temperature off-shore, and may enhance our knowledge regarding extreme values. The data were collected on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Lowestoft Fisheries Laboratory and are stored at the British Oceanographic Data Centre.

The data set comprises temperature and salinity hydrocasts collected across the North Atlantic Ocean between 1910 and 1990. The measurements were collected by nine North Atlantic Ocean Weather Ships (OWS): OWS Alpha (1954 – 1974); OWS Bravo (1928 – 1974); OWS Charlie (1910 – 1982); OWS Echo (1910 – 1979); OWS India (1957 – 1975); OWS Juliet (1950 – 1975); OWS Kilo (1949 – 1973); OWS Lima (1948 – 1990); OWS Mike (1948 – 1982). This data set also includes measurements collected close to the general positions prior to the stationing of the Weather ships for the OWS Bravo, Charlie and Echo stations. Data from OWS Alpha, Bravo, Echo, India, Juliett and Kilo have been taken from the US National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) compilations whereas those from OWS Charlie, Lima and Mike have been constructed from both the US NODC and International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) data holdings. In addition a daily averaged data set for OWS Charlie is available for the period 1975 - 1985 (supplied by Syd Levitus). This data set was supplied to the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) by ICES. Additional files and more recent data can be acquired from the ICES website.

The data set comprises 2193 profiles of turbidity from an area of the Severn Estuary (UK) between the Shoots and Bridgwater Bay between 1974 and 1978. The data were collected as analogue records of continuous vertical profiles on a time series cross-section basis, where possible, over 13.5 hours from a drifting ship. All measurements were collected between 0 m and 39 m depth. The data coverage is derived from 172 stations along 17 survey lines, the density of coverage varying between 1 and 99 records per station. Each analogue record was digitised as approximately 200 pairs of XY coordinates. The X ordinates were then converted to depth (in metres) using a depth calibration and the Y ordinates to parts per million (PPM) of sediment using siltmeter calibration data. The Fluid Mud data bank was designed by the (former) Institute of Oceanographic Sciences (IOS) Taunton, UK, and the data were originally stored at IOS on a PDP 11 computer. They were then moved to an Oracle RDBMS at the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) and stored as the Bristol Channel Suspended Sediments Data Bank.

A large number of charts (originals and copies) together with tabulations of data are also available, some of which date back to the 1850s. A more detailed description of these will be available once they have been systematically catalogued and archived.

The data set comprises time series measurements from offshore pressure gauges mounted on the sea floor. The data holdings are approximately 100 observation months from 30 sites. The data are mainly from trans-ocean sections in the North Atlantic. Data records contain date/time, total pressure (or relative pressure) and, occasionally, temperature. The sampling interval is typically 15 minutes or hourly, over deployment periods ranging from 1 to 6 months. Data were collected mainly by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL), now the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) at Liverpool, and are managed by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC).

The Mediterranean-Alpine Experiment (MEDALPEX) data set comprises over 200,000 hourly sea level measurements. Data are included from 28 sites around the northern coast of the Mediterranean and one in the Atlantic at Cadiz. Measurements were collected from December 1981 and September 1982, with a special observing period (SOP) between 15 February and 30 April 1982. Twenty eight coastal sites were instrumented with conventional stilling wells, while one offshore site off Corsica used a bottom pressure recorder. The data are stored, together with benchmark information, as time series at each site with hourly values of sea surface elevation recorded to the nearest millimetre. The aim of the MEDALPEX Experiment was to study the role of atmospheric forcing on the dynamics of the Western Mediterranean. Data were supplied by laboratories in Belgium, France, Monaco, Italy, Spain, UK and former Yugoslavia. Responsibility for assembling, quality controlling and analyzing the sea level data collected during MEDALPEX was vested in the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC).

This dataset consists of significant wave height, peak wave period, second moment wave period and nautical wave direction. The dataset is a gridded dataset, with grid resolution of 1.85 km. It covers the entire Irish Sea area, with a precise range from -2.7 degrees longitude to -7 degrees longitude and from 51 degrees latitude to 56 degrees latitude. The data are hourly averages and cover the period from 01 January 1996 to 01 January 2007. The dataset was generated by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory Coastal Ocean Modelling System coupled with the Wave Modelling model (POLCOMS-WAM) as part of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) CoFEE project which ran from April 2007 to September 2010. The wave parameters generated by POLCOMS-WAM were used as input conditions into a coastal processes and sediment transport model which looked at the response of the north Liverpool coastline to extreme flooding events. The dataset was generated by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (since April 2010, part of the UK National Oceanography Centre). The dataset consists of 132 data files in Climate and Forecast (CF) compliant NetCDF format.

This dataset consists of depth-averaged eastward and northward current components. Also present is the sea surface height above sea level. The dataset is a gridded dataset, with grid resolution of 1.85 km. It covers the entire Irish Sea area, with a precise range from -2.7 degrees longitude to -7 degrees longitude and from 51 degrees latitude to 56 degrees latitude. The data are 30 minute averages and cover the period from 01 January 1996 to 01 January 2007. The dataset was generated by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory Coastal Ocean Modelling System coupled with the Wave Modelling model (POLCOMS-WAM) as part of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) CoFEE project which ran from April 2007 to September 2010. The depth-averaged eastward and northward current components and sea surface height were used as input conditions into a coastal processes and sediment transport model which looked at the response of the north Liverpool coastline to extreme flooding events. The dataset was generated by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (since April 2010, part of the UK National Oceanography Centre). The dataset consists of 264 data files in Climate and Forecast (CF) compliant NetCDF format.

To understand seasonal climatic variability in the North East Atlantic, a fortnightly resolution marine climate record from 1353–2006 was constructed for shallow inshore waters on the west coast of Scotland using red coralline algae. The data are available in an Excel file as mean winter and summer temperatures with 95% confidence intervals for each year from 1353 to 2006. SCUBA was used to collect a 46 cm core from a coralline algal (Lithothamnion glaciale) deposit in Loch Sween, Scotland. The core was frozen and sectioned longitudinally and into 2 cm horizons. Coralline algae from each horizon were sectioned along the length of each thallus. Mg, Ca, and Sr were quantified along each thallus using electron microprobe analysis. For the live collected surface specimens, this process enabled absolute dates to be assigned to each year’s growth band present within the coralline algae. Five thalli down core were selected for radiocarbon rangefinder dating at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre. Live thalli and the five rangefinder thalli were used as anchor points in construction of a combined chronology which was fine-tuned using dendrochnological techniques. Twenty seven (including anchors) Mg/Ca time series were available; each from an individual thallus. The work was funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.