The data set comprises a series of ten reports containing tables of current data and diagrams of trajectories derived from neutrally buoyant floats deployed in seas across the globe. The floats were numbered between 1-180 and 209-227, with floats 1-180 being deployed between 1955 and 1964 and floats 209-227 being deployed between February and March 1969. Detailed deployment information is listed below, with deployment location, float numbers, deployment dates and ship name (if known). NE Atlantic: floats 1-5 (Jun 1955, Oct-Nov 1955); float 11 (Aug 1956); floats 12-20 (Mar 1957); floats 25-33 (May-Jul 1958); floats 34-39 (Nov 1958). Norwegian Sea: floats 6-10 (Apr-May 1956). NW Pacific: floats 21-24 (Jul-Aug 1957). Deep water off Bermuda: floats 40-53, 55, 58 (Jun-Oct 1959, RV Aries); floats 54, 56, 57 (Oct 1959, RV Crawford); floats 59-60,64-65,68, 69,71,73-74 (Jun-Dec 1959, RV Aries); floats 61-63,66, 67,70,72 (Nov 1959, RV Crawford); floats 75-77 (Dec 1959, RV Atlantis); floats 78-98 (Feb-Jun 1960, RV Aries); floats 99-119 (Jun-Aug 1960, RV Aries). Faroe-Shetland Channel: floats 120-127 (Jul 1961, RRS Discovery). Faroe Bank Channel: float 135 (1963, Ernest Holt). Labrador Sea: floats 128-132 (1962, Erika Dan). Arabian Sea: floats 133, 134, 136-139 (Jul-Aug 1963, RRS Discovery). Indian Ocean: floats 140-160 (Mar-Apr 1964, RRS Discovery); floats 161-180 (Apr-Aug 1964, RRS Discovery). NW Mediterranean: floats 209-227 (Feb-Mar 1969, RRS Discovery). The reports were produced by the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), which later became the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Deacon Laboratory.

The data set comprises temperature, pressure, position and occasionally wave data from nine drifting buoys that were deployed across the Southern Hemisphere. Data were collected from 1979 to 1981. Each buoy carried surface pressure and sea temperature sensors, and seven of the buoys were equipped with drogues in order to aid the study of large scale, near surface ocean currents, and to complement concurrent oceanographic observations made in the area by the research ship RRS Discovery. Two of the buoys were designed with good wave following characteristics and contained accelerometers and simple processors so as to yield good wave information. The buoys were equipped with UHF telemetry transmitters to relay data to the ARGOS system on board the polar orbiting meteorological satellites Tiros-9 and NOAA-6. The buoys were were deployed by the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Wormley Laboratory UK as part of the First Garp Global Experiment (FGGE) Southern Hemisphere Drifting Buoy Network.

An iRobot Seaglider (Serial Number 534) carrying a Seabird CT Sail, Paine pressure sensor and Wetlabs ECO-puck was deployed in the Celtic Sea, Northwest European Shelf for 21 days between the 4th and 25th April 2015. It maintained a position within 10 km of 49° 24.3’ N, 8° 32.9’W and completed 1547 profiles between the sea surface and 120 m water depth. Its mission was to observe the evolution of the water column structure and the accumulation of phytoplankton biomass during spring phytoplankton bloom. Following the extraction of raw data and application of manufacturer calibrations, thermal lag corrections were applied to the temperature following the methods of Garau et al. (2011) and drawing upon a flight model similar to that described by Frajka-Williams et al (2011). Unrealistically high and low values of salinity, derived after thermal inertia corrections, were removed. Further, salinity values within 40 m of the surface (where the vertical speed of the glider was typically unstable) that were greater than 3 standard deviations from the mean salinity within top 40 m were removed. Each salinity profile was smoothed with an 8 m running mean window. Four calibrated CTD casts taken within 1.6 km of the glider were used to calibrate the gliders temperature and salinity. Based on the mean temperature and salinity of water between 80 m and 105 m the glider CT sensors were found to be reading 0.0277°C and 0.0024 psu too low. These constant offsets were corrected for. Chlorophyll-a fluorescence was derived based on the manufacturers calibrations and checked against a fluorometer on the CTD. There is evidence of quenching within the surface 30-40 m during the day which has not been removed or corrected for here. Temperature, salinity and chlorophyll-a fluorescence were gridded onto regular 1 m depth intervals and the profile average position and time calculated. The glider was funded by the NERC Sensors on Gliders Programme and deployed during a UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry Programme cruise (DY029). The processed data are held at BODC in Matlab format.

This dataset comprises 130 hydrographic data profiles, collected by a conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensor package, during March - April 1999 from the region 52.3 N, 4.3 E in the southern North Sea. A complete list of all data parameters are described by the SeaDataNet Parameter Discovery Vocabulary (PDV) keywords assigned in this metadata record. The data were collected by the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research as part of the PROcesses of Vertical Exchange in Shelf Seas (PROVESS) project.

This dataset comprises 9 hydrographic data profiles, collected by a conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensor package, during April 2005 from several stations close to the Canary Islands leading to a transect at approximately 24.5 N as far as the mid-Atlantic Ridge. A complete list of all data parameters are described by the SeaDataNet Parameter Discovery Vocabulary (PDV) keywords assigned in this metadata record. The data were collected by the Southampton Oceanography Centre as part of the Rapid Climate Change programme.

The dataset comprises 61 hydrographic data profiles, collected by a conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensor package, from across the North East Atlantic Ocean (limit 40W) area specifically the Extended Ellett Line and the Wyville Thomson Ridge, during August and September of 2007. A complete list of all data parameters are described by the SeaDataNet Parameter Discovery Vocabulary (PDV) keywords assigned in this metadata record. The data were collected by the Scottish Association for Marine Science as part of the Oceans 2025 programme.