The document discusses the role of the World Data Center in improving data coverage of global oceanographic databases through international collaboration. It describes how data rescued through projects like GODAR has led to improved understanding of decadal variability, including the discovery of global ocean warming in the 1990s and improved estimates of sea level rise. Additional lines of research highlighted include studies of decadal Great Salinity Anomalies in the North Atlantic and long-term trends in North Atlantic heat and freshwater content.