Skip to main content

Description

This dataset provides daily-averaged ocean and sea-ice surface heat fluxes on the native Lat-Lon-Cap 90 (LLC90) model grid from the ECCO Version 4 Release 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
1 Decimal Degrees x 1 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
C1991543712-POCLOUD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
9497
Processing Level
4
Published
Science Keywords
Evaporation ,
Longwave Radiation ,
Shortwave Radiation ,
Heat Flux

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 Ocean and Sea-Ice Surface Heat Fluxes - Daily Mean llc90 Grid (Version 4 release 4) [Data set]. NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ECL5D-HEA44 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
EXFhl Air-sea latent heat flux per unit area of open water (not covered by sea-ice). Note: calculated from the bulk formula following Large and Yeager (2004) NCAR/TN-460+STR. W m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -17725.137 to 2739.5286 1
EXFhs Air-sea sensible heat flux per unit area of open water (not covered by sea-ice). Note: calculated from the bulk formula following Large and Yeager (2004) NCAR/TN-460+STR. W m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -24787.664 to 3628.3005 1
EXFlwdn Downward longwave radiative flux. Note: sum of ERA-Interim downward longwave radiation and the control adjustment from ocean state estimation. W m-2 float 9.96921E+36 41.880455 to 5133.919 1
EXFlwnet Net longwave radiative flux per unit area of open water (not covered by sea-ice). Note: net longwave radiation over open water calculated from downward longwave radiation (EXFlwdn) and upward longwave radiation from ocean and sea-ice thermal emission (Stefan-Boltzman law). W m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -1443.6614 to 2934.115 1
EXFqnet Net air-sea heat flux (turbulent and radiative) per unit area of open water (not covered by sea-ice). Note: net upward heat flux over open water, calculated as EXFlwnet+EXFswnet-EXFlh-EXFhs. W m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -6878.7363 to 34089.777 1
EXFswdn Downward shortwave radiative flux. Note: sum of ERA-Interim downward shortwave radiation and the control adjustment from ocean state estimation. W m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -2246.337 to 7073.4595 1
EXFswnet Net shortwave radiative flux per unit area of open water (not covered by sea-ice). Note: net shortwave radiation over open water calculated from downward shortwave flux (EXFswdn) and ocean surface albdeo. W m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -6556.1714 to 1941.8458 1
i In the Arakawa C-grid system, tracer (e.g., THETA) and 'v' variables (e.g., VVEL) have the same x coordinate on the model grid. N/A int N/A N/A 1
i_g In the Arakawa C-grid system, 'u' (e.g., UVEL) and 'g' variables (e.g., XG) have the same x coordinate on the model grid. N/A int N/A N/A 1
j In the Arakawa C-grid system, tracer (e.g., THETA) and 'u' variables (e.g., UVEL) have the same y coordinate on the model grid. N/A int N/A N/A 1
j_g In the Arakawa C-grid system, 'v' (e.g., VVEL) and 'g' variables (e.g., XG) have the same y coordinate. N/A int N/A N/A 1
oceQnet Net heat flux into the ocean surface from all processes: air-sea turbulent and radiative fluxes and turbulent and conductive fluxes between the ocean and sea-ice and snow. Note: oceQnet does not include the change in ocean heat content due to changing ocean ocean mass (oceFWflx). Mass fluxes from evaporation, precipitation, and runoff (EXFempmr) happen at the same temperature as the ocean surface temperature. Consequently, EmPmR does not change ocean surface temperature. Conversely, mass fluxes due to sea-ice thickening/thinning and snow melt in the model are assumed to happen at a fixed 0C. Consequently, mass fluxes due to phase changes between seawater and sea-ice and snow induce a heat flux when the ocean surface temperaure is not 0C. The variable TFLUX does include the change in ocean heat content due to changing ocean mass. W m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -17088.46 to 6753.7163 1
oceQsw Net shortwave radiative flux across the ocean surface. Note: Shortwave radiation penetrates below the surface grid cell. W m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -1343.9808 to 6556.1714 1
SIaaflux Heat flux associated with the temperature difference between sea surface temperature and sea-ice (assume 0 degree C in the model). Note: heat flux needed to melt/freeze sea-ice at 0 degC to sea water at the ocean surface (at sea surface temperature), excluding the latent heat of fusion. W m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -162.14622 to 503.5452 1
SIatmQnt Net upward heat flux to the atmosphere across open water and sea-ice or snow surfaces. Note: nonzero SIatmQnt may not be associated with a change in ocean potential temperature due to sea-ice growth or melting. To calculate total ocean heat content changes use the variable TFLUX which also accounts for changing ocean mass (e.g. oceFWflx). W m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -7560.6074 to 17047.703 1
TFLUX The rate of change of ocean heat content due to heat fluxes across the liquid surface and the addition or removal of mass. . Note: the global area integral of TFLUX and geothermal flux (geothermalFlux.bin) matches the time-derivative of ocean heat content (J/s). Unlike oceQnet, TFLUX includes the contribution to the ocean heat content from changing ocean mass (e.g. from oceFWflx). W m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -17135.121 to 8703.131 1
tile The ECCO V4 horizontal model grid is divided into 13 tiles of 90x90 cells for convenience. N/A int 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
XC nonuniform grid spacing degrees_east float N/A N/A 1
XC_bnds Bounds array follows CF conventions. XC_bnds[i,j,0] = 'southwest' corner (j-1, i-1), XC_bnds[i,j,1] = 'southeast' corner (j-1, i+1), XC_bnds[i,j,2] = 'northeast' corner (j+1, i+1), XC_bnds[i,j,3] = 'northwest' corner (j+1, i-1). Note: 'southwest', 'southeast', northwest', and 'northeast' do not correspond to geographic orientation but are used for convenience to describe the computational grid. See MITgcm dcoumentation for details. N/A float N/A N/A 1
XG Nonuniform grid spacing. Note: 'southwest' does not correspond to geographic orientation but is used for convenience to describe the computational grid. See MITgcm dcoumentation for details. degrees_east float N/A N/A 1
YC nonuniform grid spacing degrees_north float N/A N/A 1
YC_bnds Bounds array follows CF conventions. YC_bnds[i,j,0] = 'southwest' corner (j-1, i-1), YC_bnds[i,j,1] = 'southeast' corner (j-1, i+1), YC_bnds[i,j,2] = 'northeast' corner (j+1, i+1), YC_bnds[i,j,3] = 'northwest' corner (j+1, i-1). Note: 'southwest', 'southeast', northwest', and 'northeast' do not correspond to geographic orientation but are used for convenience to describe the computational grid. See MITgcm dcoumentation for details. N/A float N/A N/A 1
YG Nonuniform grid spacing. Note: 'southwest' does not correspond to geographic orientation but is used for convenience to describe the computational grid. See MITgcm dcoumentation for details. degrees_north float N/A N/A 1
You're viewing 25 of 25