Ocean temperature and saltiness from a model (ECCO snapshot)
What it measures. Snapshots of ocean temperature and saltiness throughout the world's oceans at different depths, taken from a computer model rather than direct sensors.
How it's made. Produced by the ECCO project, which runs an ocean model and adjusts it to best fit a wide range of satellite and in-water observations, giving a physically consistent picture of the ocean.
How & where you'd use it. Used by oceanographers and climate researchers to study ocean circulation and how heat and salt move through the seas.
What's measured
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 instantaneous 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
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="ECCO_L4_TEMP_SALINITY_LLC0090GRID_SNAPSHOT_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. Official links
- Software maintained by ECCO Consortium on GitHub. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- ECCO Version 4 Release 4 model configuration maintained by the ECCO Consortium on GitHub VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Instructions for reproducing ECCO Version 4 Release 4 VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Python Tutorials for ECCO Central Production Version 4 (ECCO V4) VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- ECCO Version 4 Release 4 User Guide VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Synopsis of ECCO Version 4 Release 4 VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Synopsis of ECCO 'Central Estimate' global ocean and sea-ice state estimate, Version 4 Release 3 VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Sample Plots -- gcmfaces analysis of ECCO V4, Release 4 (1992-2017) VIEW RELATED INFORMATION