Using Ferret "Live Access Server Version 6.0"
A rich source of data is the NOAA live access server. Here you can get data that is not available on the WorldWatcher CD and that is very useful in exploring ocean structure, as well as accessing data that is more recent than that from WorldWatcher.
Note: There are various versions of the Live Access Server, and it works with different browsers on different computers. On Macintosh, it will work best on version 4.79 of Netscape. You can find old versions for download at: http://wp.netscape.com/download/archive/client_archive47x.html. PC users have a better situation. It will depend on your operating system. In Windows 98, I found it worked with Netscape 6.0, but it should also work with Netscape 7.0 (the first time I used it on a PC, it asked me to download a Java plugin. I did, and it was fine). On the Macintosh, in OSX, it only worked with Netscape 4.79.
Definitions you will need:
Climatology: concerns averages of data. For example, the SST (sea surface temperature) for month of January would consist of an average of sst data for January for many years.
Meridional: North-South component. For example, a positive value of the meridional winds would be the component of wind flow in the South to North direction.
Zonal: A positive zonal wind would be the component of wind flowing from East to West. If the zonal and meridional components of the wind were equal and positive, wind would be flowing from SoutheEast to NorthWest.
The figure below shows what you see when you access this site. It is targeted for researchers, but is also easy to use for students.
Follow this short tutorial to get started:
1. Open your browser and go to http://ferret.pmel.noaa.gov/nvods/servlets/dataset.
2. Click on the "by Dataset Name" line. You should get an image similar to that shown below.
3. The screen above gives you an intimidating list of datasets. The "i" icon next to each dataset name gives you some information about the dataset. Try it, but don't worry if it seems complicated. The information is meant for researchers in the field. You should scroll down and click on the World Ocean Atlas 98 Annual. This gives you a lot of data that is an annual average of the parameters over many years. You should then see the screen below.
4. Again, a long list of possible data parameters to choose from. For this tutorial, scroll down and check the "Temperature (analyzed)" and "Salinity (analyzed)" boxes. From here, you click on one of the "Next>" buttons on the right. You should see the screen below.
5. If you see the screen above, you've reached the gold! You drag the mouse over the area you want. The"Select View:" popup menu lets you choose between a map view, a depth section, or a plot of the temperature vs depth as a line plot. Fiddle around with it. The controls change for different datasets, and you will notice that if you chose Temperature (monthly), for example, you wouldn't get so many parameters to choose from, and a month popup menu would appear.
6. Once you have made your choices, click on the "Next>" and after a short wait, your data images should appear.
7. Click on the "Datasets" line at the upper left and choose a different dataset. Try World Ocean Atlas 98(monthly).