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Reanalyses and observational datasets available on the page are listed in the tables that follow. For more information and discussion of various atmospheric and oceanic reanalyses, see the "Reanalysis Intercomparison and Observations Wiki" (http://reanalyses.org). This wiki includes references/citations and a detailed reanalyses comparison guide. All depth variables have been interpolated to 1x1 horizontal grids with 18 vertical levels, for ease of comparison. Single level variables are not necessarily interpolated to the same grid, preserving high resolution grids when possible. For those, plot differences are computed by interpolating the lower resolution dataset of the two being compared to the resolution of the higher resolution and subtracting. Anomalies are based on the climatology from each reanalyses dataset separately. Variable units have been changed to be consistent so the datasets can easily be compared. More recent data may be available at the source.

Datasets

¹ Start and end dates reflect data on the WRIT pages and may not reflect what is available at the source.

Variables

Table of Available Variables for the datasets

X:model output. C:calculated from other variables (or top level for SST).

Variables

Interpolation

All depth variables have been converted to 1x1 grids and 18 levels. Variables were first linearly interpolated to the new set of levels at each grid point. Then the data was bilinearly interpolated to a 1x1 grid. Values south of the southern extent of the original tart's latitudinal range and north of the original northern extent were set to missing. This made it possible to easily compare depth by latitude and depth by longitude plots.

• Longitude values for those depth data are 0E,1E,2E...358E,359E.
• Latitude values for those depth data are 89.5S, 88.5S,...88.5N,89.5N
• Depth values for those depth data are (in meters)5, 10, 20, 30, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200, 250, 300, 400, 500, 750, 1000, 1500

Single level variables were not interpolated in space so that users will get the highest resolution possible. When maps are compared, the lowest is converted to the highest resolution

Calculations

Most available data variables are output from the model. The exceptions are:

• Heat Content:. On the interpolated grids, heat calculate from temperature was interpolated from 300m upward. This will later be done on the original grids.
• Depth of 20C Isotherm: On the original data grid, each grid point was interpolated to find the depth of the 20C level using NCL subroutine int_2p. Values at the surface or above were set to missing. Some interpolations resulted in missing values if temperature didn't decrease for all levels going down.
• SST: Some datasets have SST as an output variable. Where it is not, the top most level of temperature was used as SST.
• Bottom Temperature: THC= is calculated using the original horizontal/vertical resolution potential temperature. The temperature of the lowest depth at each grid point is stored.

Citations

To cite dataset if plot or extracted used in any publication, use the reference below. Please read documentation about datasets to see about caveats, analysis methods, and similar information.

• NCEP GODAS: Huang, Boyin, Yan Xue, Dongxiao Zhang, Arun Kumar, Michael J. McPhaden, 2010: The NCEP GODAS Ocean Analysis of the Tropical Pacific Mixed Layer Heat Budget on Seasonal to Interannual Time Scales. J. Climate, 23, 4901-4925 (DOI: 10.1175/2010JCLI3373.1).
• ORAS5:Zuo, H., Balmaseda, M. A., Tietsche, S., Mogensen, K., and Mayer, M.: The ECMWF operational ensemble reanalysis–analysis system for ocean and sea ice: a description of the system and assessment, Ocean Sci., 15, 779–808, 2019. https://doi.org/10.5194/os-15-779-2019
• SODA 3.7.2: A New Ocean Climate Reanalysis James A. Carton; Gennady A. Chepurin; Ligang Chen J. Climate (2018) 31 (17): 6967–6983.doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0149.1
• SODA 3.4.2: A New Ocean Climate Reanalysis James A. Carton; Gennady A. Chepurin; Ligang Chen J. Climate (2018) 31 (17): 6967–6983.doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0149.1
• EN4: Good, S. A., M. J. Martin and N. A. Rayner, 2013. EN4: quality controlled ocean temperature and salinity profiles and monthly objective analyses with uncertainty estimates, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 118, 6704-6716, doi:10.1002/2013JC009067.
• ECCO:
  • ECCO Version 4 Release 4 Dataset ECCO Consortium, Fukumori, I., Wang, O., Fenty, I., Forget, G., Heimbach, P., & Ponte, R. M. July 2020. ECCO Central Estimate (Version 4 Release 4). Retrieved from https://ecco.jpl.nasa.gov/drive/files/Version4/Release4/interp_monthly/
  • ECCO Version 4 Release 4 Synopsis ECCO Consortium, Fukumori, I., Wang, O., Fenty, I., Forget, G., Heimbach, P., & Ponte, R. M. (2020, April 24). Synopsis of the ECCO Central Production Global Ocean and Sea-Ice State Estimate (Version 4 Release 4).
  • ECCO Version 4 Description Forget, G., J.-M. Campin, P. Heimbach, C. N. Hill, R. M. Ponte, and C. Wunsch, 2015: ECCO version 4: An integrated framework for non-linear inverse modeling and global ocean state estimation. Geoscientific Model Development, 8, 3071-3104, doi:10.5194/gmd-8-3071-2015.
• ORA20C:
  • de Boisseson, E., Balmaseda, M. and M. Mayer (2017). Ocean heat content variability in an ensemble of twentieth century ocean reanalyses. Clinate Dynamics. DOI: 10.1007/s00382-017-3845-0.
  • de Boisseson, E. and M. Balmaseda (2016). An ensemble of 20th century ocean reanalyses for providing ocean initial conditions for CERA-20C coupled streams. ERA report series 24.
• HadISST1.1: Rayner, N. A.; Parker, D. E.; Horton, E. B.; Folland, C. K.; Alexander, L. V.; Rowell, D. P.; Kent, E. C.; Kaplan, A. (2003) Global analyses of sea surface temperature, sea ice, and night marine air temperature since the late nineteenth century J. Geophys. Res.Vol. 108, No. D14, 4407 10.1029/2002JD002670
• NOAA OI SST: Reynolds, R.W., N.A. Rayner, T.M. Smith, D.C. Stokes, and W. Wang, 2002: An improved in situ and satellite SST analysis for climate. J. Climate, 15, 1609-1625.
• GPVP V3.2: Adler, Robert; Wang, Jian-Jian; Sapiano, Matthew; Huffman, George; Chiu, Long; Xie, Ping Ping; Ferraro, Ralph; Schneider, Udo; Becker, Andreas; Bolvin, David; Nelkin, Eric; Gu, Guojun; and NOAA CDR Program (2016). Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Climate Data Record (CDR), Version 2.3 (Monthly). National Centers for Environmental Information. doi:10.7289/V56971M6 [access date]

Other Sources of Products

• ORAS5 products from ECMWF
• Multiple Ocean Reanalysis Intercomparisons from NOAA CPC.
• GODAS current and historic plots and animations from NOAA/CPC.
• Northeast Ocean Data Portal

Ocean Reanalysis Comparison References

• Balmaseda, M. A., and Coauthors, 2015: The Ocean Reanalyses Intercomparison Project (ORA-IP). J. Operational Oceanogr., 8 (S1), S80–S97, https://doi.org/10.1080/1755876X.2015.1022329.
• Xue, Y., Wen, C., Kumar, A. et al. A real-time ocean reanalyses intercomparison project in the context of tropical pacific observing system and ENSO monitoring. Clim Dyn 49, 3647–3672 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-017-3535-y