Abstract:

Time-mean and seasonal climatology of near-surface currents for the world, at quarter-degree and 15-day resolution, calculated from observations from satellite-tracked 15-m drogued and undrogued drifters of the NOAA's Global Drifter Program. This climatology incorporates more than 29 million, six hour position/velocity estimates scattered throughout the world’s ice-free oceans, from February 1979 to June 2015.

Suggested Citation:

L. C. Laurindo, A. J. Mariano, and R. Lumpkin. 2017. Near-surface velocity climatology for the global ocean from drifter observations. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/N7SJ1HN5

Publications:

Laurindo, L. C., Mariano, A. J., & Lumpkin, R. (2017). An improved near-surface velocity climatology for the global ocean from drifter observations. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2017.04.009

Purpose:

A global climatology of surface ocean currents is desirable for many applications, finding use in dynamical studies, investigations of the transport and dispersion of pollutants and of biogeochemical tracers, being also relevant for ship routing and search and rescue efforts.

Data Parameters and Units:

% Data axes and number of observations: lon (1440x1): longitude (degrees), -180 to +180; lat (720x1): latitude (degrees), -90 to +90; time (24x1): ordinal day of the year, 1 to 365; nobs (720x1440): number of daily drifter observations used in the calculations; % Climatological fields of near-surface currents: u_mean (720x1440): annual mean zonal velocity (m/s); v_mean (720x1440): annual mean meridional velocity (m/s); uE_mean (720x1440): standard error of u_mean (m/s); vE_mean (720x1440): standard error of v_mean (m/s); u_seasonal (720x1440x24): annual mean + seasonal zonal velocity (m/s); v_seasonal (720x1440x24): annual mean + seasonal meridional velocity (m/s); uE_seasonal (720x1440x24): standard error of u_seasonal (m/s); vE_seasonal (720x1440x24): standard error of v_seasonal (m/s). % Current variance information: u_mvar (720x1440): ensemble-average of the squared annual mean zonal velocities (m2.s-2); v_mvar (720x1440): ensemble-average of the squared annual mean meridional velocities (m2.s-2); u_svar (720x1440): variance of the zonal velocities' seasonal fluctuations (m2.s-2); v_svar (720x1440): variance of the meridional velocities' seasonal fluctuations (m2.s-2); u_evar (720x1440): variance of the zonal velocities' residual (eddy) fluctuations (m2.s-2); v_evar (720x1440): variance of the meridional velocities' residual (eddy) fluctuations (m2.s-2);

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