GTSPP is an IODE project. The Global Temperature and Salinity Profile Programme (GTSPP) is a cooperative international program to develop and maintain a global ocean Temperature-Salinity resource with data that are both up-to-date and of the highest quality. It is a joint World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) program.
The GTSPP was developed as a response to the changing needs in the ocean science and marine operational communities. Scientists conducting research into oceanic and atmospheric processes are addressing global issues and need multi-disciplinary data sets for their experiments. The operational community needs more data in operational time frames to conduct safe operations at sea. Both the scientific and operational communities are applying the knowledge of ocean processes gained in four decades of research. Data are being assimilated into models making predictions addressing sustainable development, climate change, and human and environmental safety.
As a result of these needs, data collection programmes are more complex and produce significantly large volumes of data. The quality control problem is more difficult because of the increased volume of the complexity of the data. Improved means of high-speed data communications and the WWW in international data management, data and improved data and information products need to be available more quickly than in the past.