On this page: Temporal Coverage | Spatial Coverage | Levels | Update Schedule | Download/Plot Data | Analysis Tools
Restrictions | Details | Caveats | File Naming | Citation | References | Original Source | Contact

NODC (Levitus) World Ocean Atlas 1998

Brief Description:

• NODC (Levitus) World Ocean Atlas Data 1998

Temporal Coverage: Long term annual means, derived from data for years 1900 - 1997. Long term seasonal means, derived from data for years 1900 - 1997. Long term monthly means, derived from data for years 1900 - 1997. Spatial Coverage: 1.0 degree latitude x 1.0 degree longitude global grid (180x360). 89.5N - 89.5S 0.5E - 359.5E. 5.0 degree latitude x 5.0 degree longitude global grid (36x72). 87.5N - 87.5S, 2.5E - 357.5E.

Levels:

• Depth in meters at 0.0, 10.0, 20.0, 30.0, 50.0, 75.0, 100.0, 125.0, 150.0, 200.0, 250.0, 300.0, 400.0, 500.0, 600.0, 700.0, 800.0, 900.0, 1000.0, 1100.0, 1200.0, 1300.0, 1400.0, 1500.0, 1750.0, 2000.0, 2500.0, 3000.0, 3500.0, 4000.0, 4500.0, 5000.0, 5500.0.
• Depth in meters at 0.0, 10.0, 20.0, 30.0, 50.0, 75.0, 100.0, 125.0, 150.0, 200.0, 250.0, 300.0, 400.0, 500.0, 600.0, 700.0, 800.0, 900.0, 1000.0, 1100.0, 1200.0, 1300.0, 1400.0, 1500.0.

Update Schedule:

• Static

Download/Plot Data: (FTP Access)

Variable	Statistic	Level	Download File	Create Plot/Subset
Ocean Temperature 1 degree	Long Term Mean	Multiple
Ocean Salinity 1 degree	Long Term Mean	Multiple
Ocean Temperature 5 degree	Long Term Mean	Multiple
Ocean Salinity 5 degree	Long Term Mean	Multiple
Basin Index	Mask	Multiple	basin.nc
Maximum Land/Sea Depth Index	Mask		landseadepth.nc

Usage Restrictions:

• None

Detailed Description:

• The atlas contains annual, seasonal, and monthly long term means for temperature and salinity at multiple depths. Several statistics, including nobs are included in separate files, along with two "mask" files.

Caveats:

• None

Related File Naming & Structure Information:

File Names:

• var/time/var2.stat res.nc   (In directory: /Datasets/nodc.woa98/)

  where var is one of:

  temperat - ocean temperature

  salinity - ocean salinity

  time is one of:

  annual

  monthly

  seasonal

  var2 is one of:

  otemp - ocean temperature

  salt - ocean salinity

  stat is one of:

  anal - analyzed mean

  dd - data distribution (basically number of observations)

  gp - grid point (number of cells influencing this cell's value)

  ma - anomaly; annual mean subtracted

  oa - analyzed annual mean subtracted from raw mean

  raw - raw (AKA unanalyzed) mean

  sd - standard deviation

  se - standard error

  and res is either:

  1deg - 1 degree grid

  5deg - 5 degree grid

OpenDap File Names:

• >/thredds/dodsC/Datasets/nodc.woa98/var/time/var2.stat res.nc   

Dataset Format and Size:

• PSL standard NetCDF 344 Kbyte file for each annual 5 degree file.
• PSL standard NetCDF 1 Mbyte file for each seasonal 5 degree file.
• PSL standard NetCDF 3 Mbyte file for each monthly 5 degree file.
• PSL standard NetCDF 9 Mbyte file for each annual 1 degree file (each grid point file half the size).
• PSL standard NetCDF 34 Mbyte file for each seasonal 1 degree file (each grid point file half the size).
• PSL standard NetCDF 75 Mbyte file for each monthly 1 degree file (each grid point file half the size).

Missing Data:

• Missing data is flagged with a value of 32767s.
• Missing data is flagged with a value of -9.96921e+36f.
• A mask variable can be used to determine which points are ocean points and the number of valid levels.

Citation:

• Please note: If you acquire NODC_WOA98 data products from PSL, we ask that you acknowledge us in your use of the data. This may be done by including text such as NODC_WOA98 data provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSL, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their Web site at / in any documents or publications using these data. We would also appreciate receiving a copy of the relevant publications. This will help PSL to justify keeping the NODC_WOA98 data set freely available online in the future. Thank you!

References:

Original Source:

• National Oceanographic Data Center, NOAA, Washington, D.C.

Contact:

• Physical Sciences Laboratory: Data Management
  NOAA/ESRL/PSL
  325 Broadway
  Boulder, CO 80305-3328
  psl.data@noaa.gov