32 
Sy, A. et al. (2002): Upper Ocean Climate Ship-of-Opportunity Programme of BSH - A Status Report 
Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie 
Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency 
Trackplot of German Navy BA THY (JJYY) messages transmitted by BSH in 2001 
90'W 80‘W 70‘W 60'W 50‘W 40'W 30'W 20'W 10"W 0‘ 10'E 20'E 30‘E 40'E 
Fig. 23: Contribution of BATHYs from the German Navy in 2001 (real-time input only). 
• Since 1993, and as a result of German unification, an additional and significant contribution 
of real-time temperature data has come from the German Navy (Fig. 23). However, this real 
time data source dried up completely in 2002 due to the Navy’s decision to declassify their 
data not earlier than 1 month after collection. This decision was made for safety reasons. 
Therefore, and to avoid data losses, the non-real-time BATHY messages are submitted to 
MEDS (Canada) for archiving. 
• The SST programme of BSH, which was established in 1987, has been supplemented by 
SSS measurements since 1996. Data are collected by both governmental and commercial 
vessels using Pt100 hull contact thermometers (Sy and Ulrich, 1990) or SBE-21 
thermosalinographs. All SST and SSS data received at BSH in time are inserted onto GTS 
as TRACKOB coded reports. This programme is restricted to the North and Baltic Seas with 
special focus on the German EEZ (Fig. 24) and does not follow the TWI line system.