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Description

This dataset contains monthly-averaged atmosphere surface temperature, humidity, wind, and pressure interpolated to a regular 0.5-degree grid from the ECCO Version 4 revision 4 (V4r4) ocean and sea-ice state estimate. Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) ocean and sea-ice state estimates are dynamically and kinematically-consistent reconstructions of the three-dimensional, time-evolving ocean, sea-ice, and surface atmospheric states. ECCO V4r4 is a free-running solution of the 1-degree global configuration of the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm) that has been fit to observations in a least-squares sense. Observational data constraints used in V4r4 include sea surface height (SSH) from satellite altimeters [ERS-1/2, TOPEX/Poseidon, GFO, ENVISAT, Jason-1,2,3, CryoSat-2, and SARAL/AltiKa]; sea surface temperature (SST) from satellite radiometers [AVHRR], sea surface salinity (SSS) from the Aquarius satellite radiometer/scatterometer, ocean bottom pressure (OBP) from the GRACE satellite gravimeter; sea ice concentration from satellite radiometers [SSM/I and SSMIS], and in-situ ocean temperature and salinity measured with conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensors and expendable bathythermographs (XBTs) from several programs [e.g., WOCE, GO-SHIP, Argo, and others] and platforms [e.g.,research vessels, gliders, moorings, ice-tethered profilers, and instrumented pinnipeds]. V4r4 covers the period 1992-01-01T12:00:00 to 2018-01-01T00:00:00.

Product Summary

Platforms
MODELS ,
MITgcm
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
0.5 Decimal Degrees x 0.5 Decimal Degrees
Geographic Region
GLOBAL OCEAN
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
1992-01-01 to 2018-01-01
Data Partner
Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA (NASA/JPL/PODAAC)
Concept ID
C1990404814-POCLOUD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
312
Processing Level
4
Published
Science Keywords
Sea Level Pressure ,
Air Temperature ,
Surface Winds ,
Wind Speed ,
Specific Humidity

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

Fenty, I., & Wang, O. (2020). ECCO Atmosphere Surface Temperature, Humidity, Wind, and Pressure - Monthly Mean 0.5 Degree (Version 4 release 4) [Data set]. NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ECG5M-ATM44 Date Accessed: 2025-12-14

Documents

Variables

Variables are a set of physical properties whose values determine the characteristics or behavior of something. For example, temperature and pressure are variables of the atmosphere. Parameters and variables can be used interchangeably. Variable level attributes provide individual information for each variable.

The Name in this table is the variable name. Fill value indicates missing or undefined data points in a variable. Valid range is the range of values the variable can store. Scale factor is used to increase or decrease the size of an object and can be used to correct for distortion. For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
EXFaqh Surface (2 m) specific humidity over open water. Note: sum of ERA-Interim surface specific humidity and the control adjustment from ocean state estimation. kg kg-1 float 9.96921E+36 -0.05956685 to 2.7018907 1
EXFatemp Surface (2 m) air temperature over open water. Note: sum of ERA-Interim surface air temperature and the control adjustment from ocean state estimation. degree_C float 9.96921E+36 20626.053 to 31033.922 1
EXFewind Zonal (east-west) component of ocean surface wind. Note: EXFewind is calculated by interpolating the model's x and y components of wind velocity (EXFuwind and EXFvwind) to tracer cell centers and then finding the zonal component of the interpolated vectors. ECCO V4r4 is forced with wind stress (see EXFtaux, EXFtauy), not vector winds + bulk formulae. EXFewind is calculated by converting wind stress to vector wind using bulk formulae. m s-1 float 9.96921E+36 -1454.3455 to 1414.3867 1
EXFnwind Meridional (north-south) component of ocean surface wind. Note: EXFnwind is calculated by interpolating the model's x and y components of wind velocity (EXFuwind and EXFvwind) to tracer cell centers and then finding the meridional component of the interpolated vectors. ECCO V4r4 is forced with wind stress (see EXFtaux, EXFtauy), not vector winds + bulk formulae. EXFnwind is calculated by converting wind stress to vector wind using bulk formulae. m s-1 float 9.96921E+36 -1436.3608 to 1386.22 1
EXFpress Atmospheric pressure field at sea level. Note: ERA-Interim atmospheric pressure, with air tides removed using a variety of methods. Not adjusted by the ocean state estimation. N m-2 float 9.96921E+36 9582141 to 10406152 1
EXFwspee 10-m wind speed magnitude (>= 0 ) over open water. Only used for the calculation of air-sea fluxes using bulk formulae. Note: not adjusted by the ocean state estimation and not necesarily consistent with EXFuwind and EXFvwind because EXFuwind and EXFvwind are calculated from EXFtaux and EXFtauy using bulk formulae. EXFwspee != sqrt(EXFuwind**2 + EXFvwind**2. m s-1 float 9.96921E+36 89.69293 to 1728.6042 1
latitude uniform grid spacing from -89.75 to 89.75 by 0.5 degrees_north float N/A N/A 1
latitude_bnds latitude bounds grid cells N/A float N/A N/A 1
longitude uniform grid spacing from -179.75 to 179.75 by 0.5 degrees_east float N/A N/A 1
longitude_bnds longitude bounds grid cells N/A float N/A N/A 1
time center time of averaging period hours since 1992-01-01T12:00:00 int N/A N/A 1
time_bnds Start and end times of averaging period. N/A int N/A N/A 1
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