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Full catalog/ECCO_L4_OCEAN_3D_VOLUME_FLUX_LLC0090GRID_MONTHLY_V4R4
ECCO_L4_OCEAN_3D_VOLUME_FLUX_LLC0090GRID_MONTHLY_V4R4·vV4r4·dataset

Modeled 3D ocean water flow, monthly (fine grid)

ECCO Ocean Three-Dimensional Volume Fluxes - Monthly Mean llc90 Grid (Version 4 Release 4)
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 4 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Monthly estimates of how seawater flows in three dimensions throughout the ocean, showing the volume of water moving in different directions and depths.

How it's made. Not a direct measurement but the output of a computer ocean model (ECCO) that blends many satellite and in-water observations into a physically consistent reconstruction, on the model's native grid.

How & where you'd use it. Used by oceanographers to study ocean currents, heat and water transport, and how the ocean shapes climate. Best suited to researchers comfortable with model output.

What's measured

OCEANS › OCEAN CIRCULATION › OCEAN CURRENTSOCEANS › OCEAN CIRCULATION 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 provides monthly-averaged ocean three-dimensional volume fluxes 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 and model sea level anomaly (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_ocean_3d_volume_flux_llc0090grid_monthly_v4r4_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ECCO_L4_OCEAN_3D_VOLUME_FLUX_LLC0090GRID_MONTHLY_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.