The Southern Ocean plays a fundamental role in regulating the global climate. This ocean also contains a rich and highly productive ecosystem, potentially vulnerable to climate change. Very large national and international efforts are directed towards the modeling of physical oceanographic processes to predict the response of the Southern Ocean to global climate change and the role played by the large-scale ocean climate processes. However, these modeling efforts are greatly limited by the lack of in situ measurements, especially at high latitudes and during winter months. The standard data that are needed to study ocean circulation are vertical profiles of temperature and salinity, from which we can deduce the density of seawater. These are collected with CTD (Conductivity-Temperature-Depth) sensors that are usually deployed on research vessels or, more recently, on autonomous Argo profilers. The use of conventional research vessels to collect these data is very expensive, and does not guarantee access to areas where sea ice is found at the surface of the ocean during the winter months. A recent alternative is the use of autonomous Argo floats. However, this technology is not easy to use in glaciated areas. In this context, the collection of hydrographic profiles from CTDs mounted on marine mammals is very advantageous. The choice of species, gender or age can be done to selectively obtain data in particularly under-sampled areas such as under the sea ice or on continental shelves. Among marine mammals, elephant seals are particularly interesting. Indeed, they have the particularity to continuously dive to great depths (590 ± 200 m, with maxima around 2000 m) for long durations (average length of a dive 25 ± 15 min, maximum 80 min). A Conductivity-Temperature-Depth Satellite Relay Data Logger (CTD-SRDLs) has been developed in the early 2000s to sample temperature and salinity vertical profiles during marine mammal dives (Boehme et al. 2009, Fedak 2013). The CTD-SRDL is attached to the seal on land, then it records hydrographic profiles during its foraging trips, sending the data by satellite ARGOS whenever the seal goes back to the surface.While the principle intent of seal instrumentation was to improve understanding of seal foraging strategies (Biuw et al., 2007), it has also provided as a by-product a viable and cost-effective method of sampling hydrographic properties in many regions of the Southern Ocean (Charrassin et al., 2008; Roquet et al., 2013).

These monthly gridded climatology were produced using MBT, XBT, Profiling floats, Gliders, and ship-based CTD data from different database and carried out in the Med. between 1969 and 2013. The Mixed Layer Depth (MLD) is calculated with a delta T= 0.1 C criterion relative to 10m reference level on individual profiles. The Depth of the Bottom of the Seasonal Thermocline (DBST) is calculated on individual profiles as the maximum value from a vector composed of two elements: 1) the depth of the temperature minimum in the upper 200m; 2) the MLD. This double criterion for the calculation of DBST is necessary in areas where the mixed layer exceed 200m depth. DBST is the integration depth used in the calculation of the upper-ocean Heat Storage Rate. For more details about the data and the methods used, see: Houpert et al. 2015, Seasonal cycle of the mixed layer, the seasonal thermocline and the upper-ocean heat storage rate in the Mediterranean Sea derived from observations, Progress in Oceanography, http://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2014.11.004

Argo is a global array of 3,000 free-drifting profiling floats that measures the temperature and salinity of the upper 2000 m of the ocean. This allows, for the first time, continuous monitoring of the temperature, salinity, and velocity of the upper ocean, with all data being relayed and made publicly available within hours after collection. The array provides 100,000 temperature/salinity profiles and velocity measurements per year distributed over the global oceans at an average of 3-degree spacing. Some floats provide additional bio-geo parameters such as oxygen or chlorophyll. All data collected by Argo floats are publically available in near real-time via the Global Data Assembly Centers (GDACs) in Brest (France) and Monterey (California) after an automated quality control (QC), and in scientifically quality controlled form, delayed mode data, via the GDACs within six months of collection. The BGC-Argo Sprof snapshot is a subset of the global Argo data snapshot.  It is created to ease BGC-Argo data usage.  The content is the same if you are to download the global Argo data snapshot, and then select all the BGC-Argo Sprof files.  Please use the same DOI and citation as the global Argo data snapshot.

This data set provides a monthly time series of the upper limb of the Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) intensity at the A25 Greenland-Portugal OVIDE line from 1993 to 2015. The MOC was derived by combining AVISO altimetry with ISAS temperature and salinity data. The reader is referred to Mercier et al. (2015, Progress in Oceanography) for a full description of the method.

Satellite altimetry missions provide a quasi-global synoptic view of sea level over more than 25 years. The satellite altimetry constellation is used to build sea level maps and regional sea level indicators such as trends and accelerations. Estimating realistic uncertainties on these quantities is crucial to address some current climate science questions such as climate change detection and attribution or regional sea level budget closure for example. Previous studies have estimated the uncertainty for the global mean sea level (GMSL), but no uncertainty information is available at regional scales. In this study we estimate a regional satellite altimetry error budget and use it to derive maps of confidence intervals for local sea rise rates and accelerations. We analyze 27 years of satellite altimetry maps and derive the satellite altimetry error variance-covariance matrix at each grid point, prior to the estimation of confidence intervals on local trends and accelerations at the 90% confidence level using extended least squares estimators. Over 1993–2019, we find that the average local sea level trend uncertainty is 0.83 mm.yr-1 with local values ranging from 0.78 to 1.22 mm.yr-1. For accelerations, uncertainties range from 0.057 to 0.12 mm.yr-2, with a mean value of 0.063 mm.yr-2.   Change history: - 2020/07/08: initial dataset submission over 1993-2018 - 2020/10/21: 1993-2019 update and addition of error levels

This dataset comprises two netcdf files. The first file contains the six global two-dimensional maps necessary to implement the tidal mixing parameterization presented in de Lavergne et al. (2020). Four power fields (E_wwi, E_sho, E_cri and E_hil) represent depth-integrated internal tide energy dissipation, with units of Watts per square meter. Each power field corresponds to a specific dissipative process and associated vertical structure of turbulence production. The two remaining fields, H_cri and H_bot, are decay heights (with units of meters) that enter the vertical structures of the E_cri and E_hil components, respectively. The second file contains three-dimensional fields of turbulence production (with units of Watts per kilogram) obtained by application of the parameterization to the WOCE global hydrographic climatology. The file includes the total turbulence production (epsilon_tid), its four components (epsilon_wwi, epsilon_sho, epsilon_cri, epsilon_hil), and the underlying hydrographic fields, as a function of longitude, latitude and depth. All maps have a horizontal resolution of 0.5º. Detailed documentation of the parameterization can be found in the following publication: de Lavergne, C., Vic, C., Madec, G., Roquet, F., Waterhouse, A.F., Whalen, C.B., Cuypers, Y., Bouruet-Aubertot, P., Ferron, B., Hibiya, T. A parameterization of local and remote tidal mixing. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 12, e2020MS002065 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1029/2020MS002065

The DBCP – Data Buoy Cooperation Panel - is an international program coordinating the use of autonomous data buoys to observe atmospheric and oceanographic conditions, over ocean areas where few other measurements are taken. DBCP coordinates the global array of 1 600 active drifting buoys (August 2020) and historical observation from 14 000 drifting buoys. Data and metadata collected by drifting buoys are publically available in near real-time via the Global Data Assembly Centers (GDACs) in Coriolis-Ifremer (France) and MEDS (Canada) after an automated quality control (QC). In long term, scientifically quality controlled delayed mode data will be distributed on the GDACs. Disclaimer: the DB-GDAC is under construction. It is currently (January 2020) aggregating data from the Coriolis DAC (E-Surfmar, Canada). Additional DACs are considered. An interim provision from GTS real-time data to GDAC may be provided from Coriolis DAC.  

Mesoscale eddy detection from 2000 to 2021 are computed using the AMEDA algorithm applied on AVISO L4 absolute dynamic topography at 1/8th degree. Eddy numbers correspond to tracks referenced in the DYNED atlas (https://doi.org/10.14768/2019130201.2). Detection is based on AVISO delyed-time product from 2000 to 2019 and on day+6 near-real-time altimetry from 2020 to 2021. Colocalisation is then made with available in situ profiles from Coriolis Ocean Dataset for Reanalysis (CORA) delayed-time data (113486 profiles) and Copernicus near-real-time profiles (43567).

GOSUD aims at assembling in-situ observations of the world ocean surface collected by a variety of ships and at distributing quality controlled datasets.  At present time the variables considered by GOSUD are temperature and salinity. The GOSUD data are mostly collected using thermosalinographs (TSG) installed on research vessels, on commercial ships and in some cases on sailing exploration ships GOSUD manages both near-real time data and delayed mode (reprocessed) data.

This dataset contains OAC-P results from application to Argo data in the World Ocean : - the 2000-2015 climatology of OAC-P results mapped onto a 0.5x0.5 grid with mapping error estimates; - the 2000-2015 probability density function of the permanent pycnocline potential density referenced to the sea surface vs Brunt-Väisälä frequency squared.OAC-P is an "Objective Algorithm for the Characterization of the permanent Pycnocline" developed to characterize subtropical gyre stratification features with both observed and modeled potential density profiles. OAC-P estimates the following properties: - for the permanent pycnocline: depth, upper and lower thicknesses, Brunt-Väisälä frequency squared, potential density, temperature and salinity; - for the surface mode water overlying the permanent pycnocline: depth, Brunt-Väisälä frequency squared, potential density, temperature and salinity. Argo data were download from Coriolis Argo GDAC on February, 8th 2016. Only Argo data with QC=1, 2, 5 or 8 were used.