###	World Ocean Atlas 2023 Data

###	Data downloaded from https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/metadata/landing-page/bin/iso?id=gov.noaa.nodc:0270533 on 2026-02-22
    <i>Reagan JR, Boyer TP, GarcĂ­a HE, Locarnini RA, Baranova OK, Bouchard C, Cross SL, Mishonov AV, Paver CR, Seidov D, Wang Z, Dukhovskoy D (2024). World Ocean Atlas 2023. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset: NCEI Accession 0270533

###	Processing steps:

    1.  Download seasonal and annual means for each parameter at desired resolution in NetCDF format from https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/metadata/landing-page/bin/iso?id=gov.noaa.nodc:0270533
    
    2.  Run 02_extract_tifs.py from working dir
        * Scans each parameter folder for .nc files in cwd/parameter/raw_nc
        * Auto-detects the objectively analysed mean variable (*_an) from each NetCDF
        * Extracts annual vs seasonal, date range, and grid resolution from NetCDF metadata
        * Chooses the appropriate depth levels from user-configured sets (different for seasonal and annnual)
        * Builds a temporary VRT containing only the selected depth bands --> converts to Geotiff, projects to EPSG:3031, crops south of 50°S
        * Rewrites the raster to enforce nodata (-9999), set band descriptions (e.g. 200m) and outputs as COG
        * Saves with standardized naming (WOA2023_<param>_<ANNUAL/season>_<daterange>_<res>.tif), skipping existing outputs