WOCE/Argo Global Hydrographic Climatology (WAGHC)

WOCE/Argo Global Hydrographic Climatology Temperature — WOCE/Argo Global Hydrographic Climatology, interpolated surface temperatures, Jan 1985. Copyright: UHH/CEN/AJB

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Access

UNRESTRICTED:

RESTRICTED: This link to the data set is only available for a restricted user group. The data set is only accessible in CEN/MPI net or accessible from external nets with a customer account. Please contact ICDC if you would like to access this data from outside the network.

Data access via file system: /data/icdc/ocean/waghc

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Description

The WOCE/ARGO Global Hydrographic Climatology (WAGHC) is concieved as the update of the previous WOCE Global Hydrographic Climatology (WGHC) (Gouretski and Koltermann, 2004).

The following improvements have been made compared to the WGHC:

Much better and more extensive global hydrographic database;
Finer spatial resolution (0.25 degrees longitude / latitude compared to 0.5 degrees for WGHC);
Finer vertical resolution (65 standard depths versus 45 standard depths for WGHC);
Monthly temporal resolution compared to the all-data-mean WGHC parameters over the entire period;;
Narrower overall time period;
Calculation of the mean year corresponding to the optimally interpolated temperature and salinity values;
Calculation of the depth of the upper mixed layer.

Similar to the WGHC the optimal spatial interpolation is performed on the local isopycnal surfaces. This approach diminishes the production of the artificial water masses. In addition to the isopycnally interpolated parameters parameter values interpolated on the isobaric levels are also provided.

The monthly gridded vertical profiles extend to the depth of 1898 m, below only annual mean parameter values are available.

Additionally, there is a dataset and a map of area codes (see figure d) in the table ) available providing indexes for selected regions of the world ocean.

Finally, the comparison with the last update of the NOAA World Ocean Atlas (Locarnini et al, 2013) was done. The differences between the two climatologies are illustrated by means of the temperature-salinity scatter diagrams for the selected areas of the World Ocean (area codes 1-15, 16-30, 31-34, see figures a) to c) in the table) and by means of maps for the selected depth levels (temperature, salinity, see figures e) and f) in the table).

WAGHC additional figures. Copyright: UHH/CEN/AJB
a) Comparison WOA13: T/S diagram area code 1-15 (pdf, not barrier free)	b) Comparison WOA13: T/S diagram area code 16-30 (pdf, not barrier free)	c) Comparison WOA13: T/S diagram area code 31-34 (pdf, not barrier free)
d) map of area codes (pdf, not barrier free)	e) Comparison WOA13: temperature (pdf, not barrier free)	f) Comparison WOA13: salinity (pdf, not barrier free)

Last update of data set at ICDC

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Parameters

Parameters of the WAGHC data set
Name	Unit
Temperature, interpolated on isobaric surfaces	°C
Temperature, interpolated on isopycnal surfaces	°C
Salinity, interpolated on isobaric surfaces	psu
Salinity, interpolated on isopycnal surfaces	psu
Temperature absolute median deviation on isobaric surfaces	°C
Temperature absolute median deviation on isopycnal surfaces	°C
Salinity absolute median deviation on isobaric surfaces	psu
Salinity absolute median deviation on isopycnal surfaces	psu
Relative interpolation error on isobaric surfaces	dimensionless
Relative interpolation error on isopycnal surfaces	dimensionless
Mean distance to four nearest observations on isobaric surfaces	km
Mean distance to four nearest observations on isopycnal surfaces	km
Number of observations contributed to the interpolated value on isobaric surfaces	dimensionless
Number of observations contributed to the interpolated value on isopycnal surfaces	dimensionless
Mean year for the parameters interpolated on isobaric surfaces	year
Mean year for the parameters interpolated on isopycnal surfaces	year
Mixed Layer Depth in temperature with a fixed threshold criterion	m
Mixed Layer Depth in density with a variable threshold criterion	m

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Coverage, spatial and temporal resolution

Period and temporal resolution:

Nominal climatological period is 1985-2016, in case no data from this time window are available the older data are used
Monthly gridded fields above 1900 m, all-data-mean fields below 1900 m

Coverage and spatial resolution:

Global
Spatial resolution: 0.25o x 0.25 o
Geographic Longitude: -180oE to 179.75oE
Geographic Latitude: 90.0oN to 79.75oS
Dimension: 1441 columns x 680 rows x N=65 depths
Altitude: 65 depths with the vertical spacing linearly increasing with depth.

Format:

NetCDF

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Data quality

The automated quality control procedure consisting of several quality checks was applied to the original temperature/salinity profiles.

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Contact

Stefan Kern
University of Hamburg
E-Mail: stefan.kern (at) uni-hamburg.de

Remon Sadikni
ICDC / CEN / University of Hamburg
E-Mail: remon.sadikni (at) uni-hamburg.de

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References

Literature:

Gouretski, Viktor (2018). WOCE-Argo Global Hydrographic Climatology (WAGHC Version 1.0). World Data Center for Climate (WDCC) at DKRZ. https://doi.org/10.1594/WDCC/WAGHC_V1.0
Gouretski, V.: World Ocean Circulation Experiment – Argo Global Hydrographic Climatology, Ocean Sci., 14, 1127-1146, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-1127-2018 , 2018.

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Data citation, License, and Acknowledgments

Please cite the data as follows:

Gouretski, Viktor (2018). WOCE-Argo Global Hydrographic Climatology (WAGHC Version 1.0). World Data Center for Climate (WDCC) at DKRZ. https://doi.org/10.1594/WDCC/WAGHC_V1.0.

and with the following acknowledgments:

Thanks to ICDC, CEN, University of Hamburg for data support.

License

The data was published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY-4.0).

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