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Description

This dataset provides monthly-averaged atmosphere surface temperature, humidity, winds, and pressure 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
Location
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
C1991543805-POCLOUD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
312
Processing Level
4
Published
Science Keywords
Sea Level Pressure ,
Specific Humidity ,
Wind Speed ,
Air Temperature ,
Surface Winds

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 llc90 Grid (Version 4 release 4) [Data set]. NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ECL5M-ATM44 Date Accessed: 2026-02-15

Documents

Variables

The table below lists the variables contained within a single granule for this dataset. Variables often contain observed or derived geophysical measurements collected from a variety of sources, including remote sensing instruments on satellite and airborne platforms, field campaigns, in situ measurements, and model outputs. The terms variable, parameter, scientific data set, layer, and band have been used across NASA’s Earth science disciplines; however, variable is the designated nomenclature in NASA’s Common Metadata Repository (CMR). Variable metadata attributes such as Name, Description, Units, Data Type, Fill Value, Valid Range, and Scale Factor allow users to efficiently process and analyze the data. The full range of attributes may not be applicable to all variables. Additional information on variable attributes is typically available in the data, user guide, and/or other product documentation.

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 -0.005956685 to 0.27018908 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 2062.6052 to 3103.392 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 958180.4 to 1040615.25 1
EXFuwind Wind speed at 10m in the +x direction at the tracer cell on the native model grid. Note: ECCO v4r4 is forced with wind stress (see EXFtaux) not vector winds converted to wind stress using bulk formulae. EXFuwind is calculated by converting wind stress to vector wind using bulk formulae. m s-1 float 9.96921E+36 -152.77663 to 141.48303 1
EXFvwind Wind speed at 10m in the +y direction at the tracer cell on the native model grid. Note: ECCO v4r4 is forced with wind stress (see EXFtauy) not vector winds converted to wind stress using bulk formulae. EXFvwind is calculated by converting wind stress to vector wind using bulk formulae. m s-1 float 9.96921E+36 -125.77562 to 141.13275 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 8.969294 to 172.86043 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
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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