This dataset is composed by the climatological seasonal field of the Ocean Salinity Stratification as defined from the Brunt-Vaisala frequency limited to the upper 300 m depth. The details are given in Maes, C., and T. J. O’Kane (2014), Seasonal variations of the upper ocean salinity stratification in the Tropics, J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 119, 1706–1722, doi:10.1002/2013JC009366.

A quantitative understanding of the integrated ocean heat content depends on our ability to determine how heat is distributed in the ocean and what are the associated coherent patterns. This dataset contains the results of the Maze et al., 2017 (Prog. Oce.) study demonstrating how this can be achieved using unsupervised classification of Argo temperature profiles. The dataset contains: - A netcdf file with classification~results (labels and probabilities) and coordinates (lat/lon/time) of 100,684 Argo temperature profiles in North Atlantic. - A netcdf file with a Profile Classification Model (PCM) that can be used to classify new temperature profiles from observations or numerical models. The classification method used is a Gaussian Mixture Model that decomposes the Probability Density Function of the dataset into a weighted sum of Gaussian modes. North Atlantic Argo temperature profiles between 0 and 1400m depth were interpolated onto a regular 5m grid, then compressed using Principal Component Analysis and finally classified using a Gaussian Mixture Model. To use the netcdf PCM file to classify new data, you can checkout our PCM Matlab and Python toolbox here: https://github.com/obidam/pcm

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