World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre

The World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre (WOUDC) is one of six World Data Centres which are part of the Global Atmosphere Watch programme of the World Meteorological Organization. The WOUDC data centre is operated by the Meteorological Service of Canada, a branch of Environment Canada.

Ozone data set categories include total column ozone and vertical profile data from lidar measurements, ozonesonde flights, and the Umkehr technique. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation data set categories include broadband, multiband, and high resolution spectral data types.

There are over 500 registered stations in the archive from over 150 contributors. Metadata such as station lists with locations, are available from the WOUDC Website.

Value added data products include total ozone time series graphs and near real-time ozone maps.

All WOUDC data are made available by using the data search / download, or anonymous FTP access. In addition, the Open Geospatial Consortium web services provide enhanced access to the archive, which provides standards-based-on-demand access to the archive. For more information, please refer to the data access page.

History of the Data Centre

1960: World Ozone Data Centre (WODC) created
1964: first publication of Ozone Data for the World issued
1992: solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation data is added to the data archives; data centre renamed to World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre (WOUDC)
1995: initial website and FTP site created
1996: first data CD ROM produced
2006: first data DVD ROM with complete data archive released
2015: website updated, providing modernized mechanisms supporting discovery, visualization, access and management of ozone and UV data