Profiles from Argo floats and other instruments are combined for the generation of the graphics. The Argo data are provided by the Global Data Assembly Centers of the Argo project and the other data are provided by the Global Temperature-Salinity Profile Program (GTSPP).

Levels are excluded from a profile if either the pressure, the salinity or the temperature failed the quality control. Profiles with pressure jumps of 100 dbar or more are excluded. The same is done for profiles that start deeper than 10 dbar and profiles that end above 900 dbar.

The remaining data are sorted into 4 degree wide latitude bands from 45S to 20N for the derivation of annual and semi-annual mean sections starting with the year 2006. All profiles in these subsets are interpolated to have a vertical resolution of 5 dbar. After that mean profiles along zonal sections are derived with a horizontal resolution of 1 degree longitude.

Section plots of the temperature and salinity are derived from the resulting fields together with maps that show the locations of the used profiles.