Global Ocean Heat and Salt Content by Levitus

Objectively analyzed mean fields of global temperature anomaly, Jul 1955.. Copyright: UHH/CEN/AJB

Topics

Access

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.

View T and S anomalies and Heat Content data at LAS
Access data via OPeNDAP: T, S aggregated | all parameters
Data access via file system: /data/icdc/ocean/levitus/

to top

Description

The data set provided here comprises time series of oceanic heat content, sea level change and time series of temperature and salinity anomalies. The basis for this are in-situ measurements from the World Ocean Database (Boyer et al., 2013, see references) and additional data, the data set is continuously updated. The temperature and salinity anomalies are differences of the measurements of the two parameters from climatological mean values of the World Ocean Atlas 2009 (Locarnini et al., 2010, see references). Based on these anomalies, the oceanic heat content and the sea level change are estimated.

By adding the mean climatological values of the World Ocean Atlas 2009 in references / in the file system to the respective anomalies, a time series of global fields of water temperature and salinity can be constructed.

Please see NOAA'S NCEI Global Ocean Heat and Salt Content website in references for further information.

Last update of data set at ICDC: Feb 16, 2023.

to top

Parameters

Parameters of the Ocean Parameter data set
Name	Unit
Heat Content Anomaly	10^18 J
Sea Level Change thermostatic halosteric total steric	mm
Temperature Anomaly	°C
Salinity Anomaly	-

to top

Coverage, spatial and temporal resolution

Period and temporal resolution:

1955-2022: temperature anomalies, ocean heat content and thermosteric sea level change
2005-2022: salinity anomalies, halosteric and total steric sea level change
yearly

Coverage and spatial resolution:

Global
Spatial resolution: 1.0° x 1.0°
from 2005: 26 depth levels up to 2000m depth
before 2005: 16 depth levels up to 700m depth
Dimension: 360 columns x 180 rows x 26 respectively 16 depth levels

Format:

NetCDF

to top

Data quality

The described parameters are provided together with a standard error.

to top

Contact

Author: Tim Boyer

email: tim.boyer (at) noaa.gov

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

to top

References

Literature:

Boyer, T.P., J. I. Antonov, O. K. Baranova, C. Coleman, H. E. Garcia, A. Grodsky, D. R. Johnson, R. A. Locarnini, A. V. Mishonov, T.D. O'Brien, C.R. Paver, J.R. Reagan, D. Seidov, I. V. Smolyar, and M. M. Zweng, 2013: World Ocean Database 2013, NOAA Atlas NESDIS 72, S. Levitus, Ed., A. Mishonov, Technical Ed.; Silver Spring, MD, 209 pp. https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/WOD13/
T. P. Boyer, J. I. Antonov , O. K. Baranova, H. E. Garcia, D. R. Johnson, R. A. Locarnini, A. V. Mishonov, T. D. O’Brien, D. Seidov, I. V. Smolyar, M. M. Zweng, 2009. World Ocean Database 2009. S. Levitus, Ed., NOAA Atlas NESDIS 66, U.S. Gov. Printing Office, Wash., D.C., 216 pp., DVDs. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/ocean-climate-laboratory#pub2009
Levitus, S., et al. (2012), World ocean heat content and thermosteric sea level change (0–2000 m), 1955–2010, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L10603, doi:10.1029/2012GL051106. https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL051106
Locarnini, R. A., A. V. Mishonov, J. I. Antonov, T. P. Boyer, H. E. Garcia, O. K. Baranova, M. M. Zweng, and D. R. Johnson, 2010. World Ocean Atlas 2009, Volume 1: Temperature. S. Levitus, Ed., NOAA Atlas NESDIS 68, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 184 pp. http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/WOA09/pubwoa09.html
Antonov, J. I., D. Seidov, T. P. Boyer, R. A. Locarnini, A. V. Mishonov, H. E. Garcia, O. K. Baranova, M. M. Zweng, and D. R. Johnson, 2010. World Ocean Atlas 2009, Volume 2: Salinity. S. Levitus, Ed. NOAA Atlas NESDIS 69, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 184 pp. http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/WOA09/pubwoa09.html

Websites:

NOAA'S NCEI World Ocean Atlas (WOA), https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/world-ocean-atlas
NOAA'S NCEI Global Ocean Heat and Salt Content, https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/global-ocean-heat-content/

to top

Data citation, License, and Acknowledgments

Please cite the data as follows:

Data Citation: Levitus, S; Antonov, J.; Boyer, T.; Baranova, O,; Garcia, H.; Locarnini, R.; Mishonov, A.; Reagan, J.; Seidov, D.; Yarosh, E.; Zweng, M.; (2017). NCEI ocean heat content, temperature anomalies, salinity anomalies, thermosteric sea level anomalies, halosteric sea level anomalies, and total steric sea level anomalies from 1955 to present calculated from in situ oceanographic subsurface profile data (NCEI Accession 0164586). Version 1.1. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. doi:10.7289/V53F4MVP. [access date]

and with the following acknowledgments:

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

License

The NOAA CDR Program’s official distribution point for CDRs is NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI; formerly NCDC) which provides sustained, open access and active data management of the CDR packages and related information in keeping with the United States’ open data policies and practices as described in the President's Memorandum on "Open Data Policy" and pursuant to the Executive Order of May 9, 2013, "Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information". In line with these policies, the CDR data sets are non-proprietary, publicly available, and no restrictions are placed upon their use.

to top