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Full catalog/ECCO_L4_TEMP_SALINITY_LLC0090GRID_MONTHLY_V4R4
ECCO_L4_TEMP_SALINITY_LLC0090GRID_MONTHLY_V4R4·vV4r4·dataset

Ocean temperature and saltiness, monthly (ECCO model)

ECCO Ocean Temperature and Salinity - Monthly Mean llc90 Grid (Version 4 Release 4)
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 4 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Monthly averages of ocean temperature and saltiness throughout the depths of the ocean, on the model's own global grid.

How it's made. Comes from the ECCO ocean state estimate, a physics-based ocean model (MITgcm) carefully fitted to many satellite and in-water measurements so it stays consistent with the real ocean.

How & where you'd use it. Used to study ocean circulation, heat and salt distribution, and the ocean's role in climate, drawing on a reconstruction tied to decades of observations.

What's measured

EARTH SCIENCE SERVICES › MODELS › EARTH SCIENCE REANALYSES/ASSIMILATION MODELSOCEANS › SALINITY/DENSITY › SALINITYOCEANS › OCEAN TEMPERATURE › POTENTIAL TEMPERATURE

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 potential temperature and salinity on the native Lat-Lon-Cap 90 (LLC90) model grid from the ECCO Version 4 Release 4 (V4r4) ocean and sea-ice state estimate. Ocean and sea-ice state estimates from the 'Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean' are dynamically and kinematically-consistent reconstructions of the three-dimensional, time-evolving ocean, sea-ice, and surface atmospheric state, FLUX, and transports. ECCO V4r4 is a free-running solution of 1-degree global configuration of the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm) that has been fit to observations in a least-squares sense. V4r4 data constraints 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 potential 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_temp_salinity_llc0090grid_monthly_v4r4_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ECCO_L4_TEMP_SALINITY_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.