Introduction

The Bering Sea, Okhotsk Sea, and Japan/East Sea are marginal seas of the North-Western Pacific referred to as the Far Eastern Seas of Russia (FES). Their water area is about 5000 km stretching south-west to the north-east. In the west and north their natural boundary is the continental coast of Asia, and in the east and south - large island arcs of Japan, Kuril, Komandorskie, Aleutian Islands and cost of Alaska. Differences in the geographical setting and morphology of the FES predetermine the main peculiarities and distinctions in the climate characteristics and hydrological mode of their basins. While the Japan/East Sea is almost completely located in the monsoon climate zone of subtropical and moderate latitudes, the vast areas of the Okhotsk Sea and Bering Sea, along with the monsoon climate, are characterized by some features of sub-arctic and arctic climate. Main peculiarities of heat and water balance, water dynamics, horizontal, vertical distribution and different-scale variability of hydrological characteristics on the surface and in the water column are strongly dependent on the character of the atmospheric processes, are conditioned by intensity of interaction with the ocean and are considerably variable. Tides are distinctly expressed and the ice is annually formed. The Japan/East Sea, Okhotsk Sea and Bering Sea are high-productive water basins exclusively important for fishery.

As a whole, the Far Eastern Seas and the adjacent areas of the Pacific Ocean condition the hydrological mode, weather and climate of the whole Asian-Pacific region of Russia. Here are the richest biological and raw material resources, this is where the navigation routes pass, and this is the place of the fishery fleet activity. That is why, here it is expedient to investigate the nature environment, to accumulate and to use effectively the information resources on the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems, i.e. the nature systems involving both abiotic and biotic components. In some areas of the Far Eastern Seas, especially in the coastal zone, the marine biota changes and degradation under the impact of climate fluctuations and anthropogenic load have reached a level of the ecological crisis. To undertake practical measures under the given problem is a priority task for the Far East of Russia, this is related to the necessity of improving the system of management in the field of nature consumption. The basis for rational planning and effective functioning of such system is all-lateral consideration of abiotic factors of natural marine ecosystems.

The long-term studies performed by the Russian and foreign scientists determined the main features of hydrometeorological mode, water structure and dynamics, the state of the coastal and marine ecosystems. The main peculiarities of variability of marine medium characteristics, of atmospheric and nature-technogenous processes were ascertained. As a result of these studies, the institutions of the Russian Far East accumulated vast factual material comprising many tens of thousands of stations and points of oceanographic, hydrometeorological, hydrochemical, hydrobiological studies and other types of observations. The most part of the deep-water oceanographic data was obtained in cruises of the research vessels by the Far Eastern Regional Hydrometeorological Research Institute, Pacific Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography/TURNIF and its Divisions, Hydrographic Survey of Russian Navy, territorial departments of the Russian Hydrometeorological Service, Russian Federal Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as by Japan, USA, and Korea organizations. Upon analysis and generalization of the material, numerous special research papers, monographs, atlases and reference books were published. Under research, economic and commercial needs, with regard to the problems to be solved, the information is used in general oceanography, hydrometeorological service, fisheries, ecology, hydrography and in a wide range of the applied problems. Regretfully, considerable part of the initial data is scattered among the data owners and it is not available for a wide circle of users in its complete form.

The proposed CD-ROM contains a brief, annotated presentation of data on the main physical-geographical characteristics, peculiarities of hydrological mode, water masses, tidal phenomena, waters circulation and ice conditions in the Bering Sea, Okhotsk Sea, and Japan/East Sea, which are based on the modern scientific notions and archived data on the oceanography of the region. It is given vast graphic material characterizing the large-scale peculiarities of distribution and intra-annual variability of the sea water temperature, salinity, sound speed, some hydrochemical elements and currents. It is provided additional information on the hydrological conditions in the Kuril-Kamchatka region and in the coastal zone of Primorski Krai. The disk contains copies of fragments of the global climate array of the average monthly data on temperature, salinity and sound speed in the sea water on the standard horizons from the surface to the bottom, covering the whole water area of the seas. A list of free-accessed data bases and web-sites which contain the additional operative and archived data on a wide specter of special questions and interrelated problems of investigation and exploration of the region is given.

At present, different marine-bound organizations have in their disposal the Levitus's CD-ROM of the WOA'94, WOD'98 and WOA'98 series prepared in the USA (OCL/NODC/NOAA). They also contain a great amount of oceanographic data on the FES. The given Atlas involves the special software developed at the POI FEB RAS for the data retrieval from the Levitus's CD, they provide a suitable interface for sorting and retrieval of the needed information from the archives of WOA'94, WOD'98 and WOA'98.

The given CD-ROM is the Second Volume (the First Version) of a series of information products of the POI FEB RAS under a title: "Information Resources of POI. Oceanography". The First Volume contains the materials of the data base "OCEAN-2" concerning the research cruises of the POI, it is titled the "Archived Data on Cruise Observations of the POI FEB RAS (1969-2000)".

New, the Second Version of Volume 2 will be based on the materials of integrated data bases of POI "OCEAN-1" and other archived data, which are listed on a specialized site of the Institute <http://www.pacificinfo.ru>.