WOCE Global Ocean Climatology 1990-1998

Abstract: The World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) Global Hydrographic Climatology (WGHC) provides the basis for all maps of the WOCE Atlantic Atlas. This climatology consists of optimally analyzed gridded fields of temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and nutrients with 0.5-degree spatial resolution for up to 44 depth levels down to 6000 m water depth. The original quality controlled set of vertical property profiles includes both the WOCE hydrographic data and selected historical data after 1970, in order to fill areas between the WOCE sections. The optimal interpolation was performed on density surfaces. This allows to avoid production of artificial water masses in the gridded data and results in sharper horizontal gradients. Another important feature of the WGHC is the hydrostatic stability of the climatologic density profiles.

TableOfContents: bottom depth; pressure; salinity; temperature; potential temperature; oxygen content; silicate content; nitrate content; phosphate content; neutral density; potential density; potential_density_range_two_standard_deviations; potential_density_range_four_standard_deviations; error_temperature_salinity; temperature_standard_deviation; salinity_standard_deviation; oxygen_content_standard_deviation; silicate_content_standard_deviation; nitrate_content_standard_deviation; phosphate_content_standard_deviation

TechnicalInfo: dimensions: 341 rows x 720 columns x 44 depth levels; temporalExtent_startDate: none; temporalExtent_endDate: none; temporalResolution: none; spatialResolution: 0.5; spatialResolutionUnit: degrees; horizontalResolutionXdirection: 0.5; horizontalResolutionXdirectionUnit: degrees; horizontalResolutionYdirection: 0.5; horizontalResolutionYdirectionUnit: degrees; verticalResolution: variable; verticalResolutionUnit: m; verticalResolutionSign: positive downwards; verticalStart: 0; verticalEnd: 6000

Methods: Technical Report, Gouretski and Koltermann (2004)

Units (in the order given in TableOfContents): m; decibars; degrees C; degrees C; 1; µmol/kg; µmol/kg; µmol/kg; µmol/kg; kg/m³; kg/m³; kg/m³; kg/m³; 1; degrees C; 1; µmol/kg; µmol/kg; µmol/kg; µmol/kg

GeoLocations: westBoundLongitude: 0.0 degrees East; eastBoundLongitude: 360.0 degrees East; southBoundLatitude: -80.0 degrees North; northBoundLatitude: 90.0 degrees North; geoLocationPlace: global ocean

Size: 2 files; 548.596 MB (variables bottom depth until including potential_density_four_standard_deviations) and 295.402 MB (variables error_temperature_salinity until including phosphate_content_standard_deviation)

Format: netCDF

DataSources: see Technical Report

Contact: viktor.gouretski (at) uni-hamburg.de; peter.koltermann (at) gmail.com;  remon.sadikni (at) uni-hamburg.de; stefan.kern (at) uni-hamburg.de

Web page: https://icdc.cen.uni-hamburg.de/en/woce-climatology.html