The Ocean Thematic Centre

The University of Exeter and the National Oceanography Centre has co-hosted the Ocean Thematic Centre with the University of Bergen and NORCE in Norway, since April 2019.

Our collaboration with the Ocean Thematic Centre will provide a broader leadership and expertise, in particular towards stakeholder involvement, new technologies, ship liaison and network design for a robust and optimally structured network.

  • The University of Exeter and NORCE (Norway) will deliver the following:
    Leadership, coordination, network design, stakeholder liaison and station labelling
  • The National Oceanography Centre, Southampton will be responsible for:
    Ship Liaison, new technology and new platforms
  • NORCE (Norway) will deliver:
    Training
  • The University of Bergen (Norway) will provide:
    Data availability and quality


The Ocean Thematic Centre has a YouTube video, click on this link or the image below to watch it.

An operational network of Voluntary Observing Ships

Ongoing work in this area includes that undertaken by both the University of Exeter [UK-Caribbean line] and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC). The NOC is working with shipping companies to improve links and communication between the research and maritime sectors.

GHG data product development

The Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT), provides global synthesis products of surface ocean fCO2 (fugacity of CO2) upon quality control. The latest SOCAT version (version 6) has 23.4 million observations from 1957 to 2017 for the global oceans and coastal seas. Calibrated sensor data are also available.

SOCAT version 6 was released on the 19th of June 2018, containing data submitted on or before 15th of January 2018. Work at the University of Exeter is further utilising the SOCAT data product and the neural network methodologies to develop comprehensive flux maps over seasonal, annual and decadal timescales of sea surface pCO2 and air-sea CO2 fluxes in/across the global ocean (Landschützer at al., 2013).

Find out more about SOCAT

Technology for GHG observations

Scientists and engineers at the National Oceanography Centre are working on technology development including platform and sensor development to improve CO2 measurements in the surface ocean. C-Enduro, the autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) developed by NOC scientists in collaboration with industry partners is one type of technology being developed for such observational purposes.

To learn more about the ICOS OTC there is a brochure released in 2017. Download here