Working in a collaborative arrangement between the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC), the World Data Center for Oceanography-Silver Spring (WDC-SS), the University of Hawai'i Sea Level Center (UHSLC) and NOAA's National Coastal Data Development Center (NCDDC), the Joint Archive for Sea Level  (JASL) facilitates an archive referred to as the Research Quality Data Set.

Important Links:

• Submit Data

• Obtain Data

• JASL Annual Report

  (May 2007)

• JASL Software

The JASL formed during the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) Project when sea level earned recognition as an important proxy for monitoring the large-scale motions of the tropical currents.  The JASL formed an archive of research-quality data from TOGA sites in the tropics and subtropics. During the 1990s, sites of oceanographic significance from higher latitudes became part of the archive in support of the TOPEX/POSEIDON altimetry community, the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), and the Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS). The JASL presently maintains data contacts with over 60 agencies in 70 countries.

The importance of JASL has become increasingly apparent.  It allows trend analyses of over 60 series, extended backwards by 30 years or more. As the first international effort to acquire, review, assess, manage, and distribute sea level for hourly and daily values, the JASL allows for a higher level of quality control and a wider range of applications. The active scientific use of the data and the guidance provided by the UHSLC specialists help ensure a data set of high scientific integrity and form an important element of the JASL.

Click here for JASL site hosted at the University of Hawai'i.