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Full catalog/ECCO_L4_MIXED_LAYER_DEPTH_05DEG_DAILY_V4R4
ECCO_L4_MIXED_LAYER_DEPTH_05DEG_DAILY_V4R4·vV4r4·dataset

Depth of the ocean's mixed surface layer (daily model)

ECCO Ocean Mixed Layer Depth - Daily Mean 0.5 Degree (Version 4 Release 4)
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 4 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. This reports the daily depth of the ocean's well-mixed surface layer worldwide, on a half-degree grid. That layer is the upper part of the ocean stirred uniform by wind and waves, and its depth affects how heat and nutrients are stored near the surface.

How it's made. It is produced by the ECCO ocean state estimate, a physics-based model run that has been fit to many satellite and in-water observations to reconstruct the ocean's evolving state.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for studying ocean heat storage, marine ecosystems, and climate, providing a consistent global picture even where direct measurements are sparse.

What's measured

OCEANS › OCEAN CIRCULATION › OCEAN MIXED LAYER EARTH SCIENCE SERVICES › MODELS › EARTH SCIENCE REANALYSES/ASSIMILATION MODELS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1992-01-01 → 2018-01-01
  • Measured byMODELS · MITgcm
  • Processing levelLevel 4
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
  • Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
  • Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description

This dataset contains daily-averaged ocean mixed layer depth interpolated to a regular 0.5-degree grid from the ECCO Version 4 revision 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.

Get the data

ecco_l4_mixed_layer_depth_05deg_daily_v4r4_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ECCO_L4_MIXED_LAYER_DEPTH_05DEG_DAILY_V4R4",
    version="V4r4",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from POCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.