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Description

This dataset provides monthly-averaged ocean and sea-ice surface stress 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
C1991543760-POCLOUD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
312
Processing Level
4
Published
Science Keywords
Wind Stress

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 Stress - Monthly Mean llc90 Grid (Version 4 release 4) [Data set]. NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ECL5M-STR44 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
EXFtaux Wind stress in the +x direction at the tracer cell on the native model grid. Note: EXFtaux is the stress applied to the ice-free ocean surface and sea-ice covered surface. When sea-ice is present, the total stress applied to the ocean surface in the +x direction is NOT EXFtaux, but a combination of EXFtaux wind stress in the open water fraction and a stress from sea-ice in the ice-covered fraction (see oceTAUX). EXFtaux is the sum of ERA-Interim stress and the control adjustment from ocean state estimation. N m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -16.020683 to 10.077697 1
EXFtauy Wind stress in the +y direction at the tracer cell on the native model grid. Note: EXFtauy is the stress applied to the ice-free ocean surface and sea-ice covered surface. When sea-ice is present, the total stress applied to the ocean surface in the +y direction is NOT EXFtauy, but a combination of EXFtauy wind stress in the open water fraction and a stress from sea-ice in the ice-covered fraction (see oceTAUY). EXFtaux is the sum of ERA-Interim stress and the control adjustment from ocean state estimation. N m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -7.632241 to 7.6664166 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
oceTAUX Ocean surface stress due to wind and sea-ice in the +x direction centered over the 'u' side of the the native model grid. Note: in the Arakawa-C grid, wind stress acts on horizontal velocities which are staggered relative to the tracer cells with indexing such that +oceTAUX(i_g,j) corresponds to +x momentum fluxes at 'u' edge of the tracer cell at (i,j,k=0). Also, the model +x direction does not necessarily correspond to the geographical east-west direction because the x and y axes of the model's curvilinear lat-lon-cap (llc) grid have arbitrary orientations which vary within and across tiles. N m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -7.5816708 to 7.922194 1
oceTAUY Ocean surface stress due to wind and sea-ice in the +y direction centered over the 'v' side of the the native model grid. Note: in the Arakawa-C grid, wind stress acts on horizontal velocities which are staggered relative to the tracer cells with indexing such that +oceTAUY(i_g,j) corresponds to +y momentum fluxes at 'v' edge of the tracer cell at (i,j,k=0). Also, the model +y direction does not necessarily correspond to the geographical north-south direction because the x and y axes of the model's curvilinear lat-lon-cap (llc) grid have arbitrary orientations which vary within and across tiles. N m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -7.5891085 to 6.0715 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
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