NOAA Satellite and Information Service
National Oceanographic Data Center

Basin time series

The time series of yearly and 3-month heat content are presented for the 0-700 meters layer. There is one file of yearly heat content and four files of 3-month heat content for each of four major oceanic basins: the World Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean (which includes the entire Arctic Ocean), and the Indian Ocean. Each file contains the integral for the entire basin (OB), the northern hemisphere part of the basin (NHPB), and the southern hemisphere part of the basin (SHPB).

Information how to download and read the data is available from Instructions.

Yearly heat content from 1955 to 2008       
  • Basin time series
- Atlantic: 0 - 700 meters layer
- Indian: 0 - 700 meters layer
- Pacific: 0 - 700 meters layer
- World: 0 - 700 meters layer

 
3-month heat content from 1955 to present
  • Basin time series
- Atlantic: 1 - 3 month
4 - 6 month
7 - 9 month
10 - 12 month
 
- Indian: 1 - 3 month
4 - 6 month
7 - 9 month
10 - 12 month
 
- Pacific: 1 - 3 month
4 - 6 month
7 - 9 month
10 - 12 month
 
- World: 1 - 3 month
4 - 6 month
7 - 9 month
10 - 12 month
FILE NAMING CONVENTIONS:

    h22-[Y]0-[Z]m[X1-X2].dat
     |   | |  | |   |     |
     |   | |  | |   |     the filename extension
     |   | |  | |   the 3-month period, where: '1-3' for Jan-Mar, '4-6' for Apr-Jul,
     |   | |  | |   '7-9' for Aug-Sep, '10-12' for Oct-Dec
     |   | |  | the label refering to depth in meters 
     |   | |  the lower depth of integration ('700') 
     |   | the upper depth of integration ('0' stands for the sea surface)
     |   ocean basins: w - World, p - Pacific, a - Atlantic, i - Indian 
     the label for heat content 

For example, file 'h22-w0-700m1-3.dat' contains the time series of ocean 3-month (Jan-Mar) 
heat content of the 0-700 m layer for the World Ocean


HEAT CONTENT UNITS:1022 joules
DATA FORMAT:
Data in each file is organized in column form:
each column corresponds to the time series for ocean basins as outlined below.

1st column - year+0.5 (for the yearly heat content) or mid-point
of five-year compositing period (for the pentadal heat content);
2nd column - time series of heat content of OB;
3rd column - time series of the standard error of heat content of OB;
4th column - time series of heat content of NHPB;
5th column - time series of the standard error of heat content of NHPB;
6th column - time series of heat content of SHPB;
7th column - time series of the standard error of heat content of SHPB.

The first line of file contains the labels for each of 7 columns.
Read the second line through the last line using an equivalent of the FORTRAN FORMAT
(F8.1, 6F8.3) statement.


  Last modified:    Wed, 8-Apr-2009 21:46 UTC NODC.Webmaster@noaa.gov
 
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