CODC-S: A quality-controlled global ocean salinity profiles dataset Scientific Data

Changes in the global ocean salinity reflect the evolution of the global hydrological cycle. These secular changes are assessed using seawater salinity profiles obtained during the past ~80 years. Here, we introduce a new global ocean salinity profiles database named CODC-S (the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) Oceanography Data Center – Salinity component), which encompasses over 11 million in-situ salinity profiles from 1940 to 2023 obtained by means of several instrument types. These salinity profiles are quality-controlled (QC-ed) using a new automated salinity quality control system named CODC-QC-S (the CODC Quality Control system – Salinity component), consisting of 11 distinct quality checks. By applying time-varying, flow-dependent, and topographical-dependent 0.5% and 99.5% quantile thresholds, the CODC-QC-S defines local climatology salinity ranges without the assumption of Gaussian distribution. The CODC-S database, together with the newly proposed QC algorithm, has undergone extensive evaluations, including comparisons with the benchmark data and climatology, as well as analyses of global and basin-scale long-term salinity changes before and after QC. These validations demonstrate that the quality of salinity data in the CODC-S is time-, depth-, region- and instrument type-dependent. The eight-decade quality-homogeneous salinity profiles from the CODC-S database can support diverse oceanographic and climatic research such as monitoring water cycle changes and freshwater/overturning transports.