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NCEP Real-time Marine Data

One-Line Description:

  • NCEP Real-time Marine Data

Temporal Coverage:

  • Monthly values for 1991/01 - present.

Spatial Coverage:

  • 2.0 degree latitude x 2.0 degree longitude global grid (90x180).
  • 89.0N - 89.0S, 1.0E - 359.0E.

Levels:

  • Sea Surface

Update Schedule:

  • Monthly

Download/Plot Data:

Variable Statistic Level Download File Create Plot/Subset
Sea Surface Temperature (S) Mean
Number of Observations
Surface sst.mean.nc
sst.nobs.nc
plot
Air Temperature (A) Mean
Number of Observations
Surface air.mean.nc
air.nobs.nc
plot
Scalar Wind (W) Mean
Number of Observations
Surface wspd.mean.nc
wspd.nobs.nc
plot
U-wind (U) Mean
Number of Observations
Surface uwnd.mean.nc
uwnd.nobs.nc
plot
V-wind (V) Mean
Number of Observations
Surface vwnd.mean.nc
vwnd.nobs.nc
plot
Sea Level Pressure (P) Mean
Number of Observations
Surface slp.mean.nc
slp.nobs.nc
plot
Cloudiness (C) Mean
Number of Observations
Surface cldc.mean.nc
cldc.nobs.nc
plot
Specific Humidity (Q) Mean
Number of Observations
Surface shum.mean.nc
shum.nobs.nc
plot
Relative Humidity (R) Mean
Number of Observations
Surface rhum.mean.nc
rhum.nobs.nc
plot
Sensible Heat Parameter ([S-A]*W) Mean
Number of Observations
Surface sflx.mean.nc
sflx.nobs.nc
plot
Latent Heat Parameter ([Qs-Q]*W) Mean
Number of Observations
Surface lflx.mean.nc
lflx.nobs.nc
plot
U-wind Stress (U*W) Mean
Number of Observations
Surface ustr.mean.nc
ustr.nobs.nc
plot
V-wind Stress (V*W) Mean
Number of Observations
Surface vstr.mean.nc
vstr.nobs.nc
plot

Usage Restrictions:

  • None

Detailed Description:

  • Monthly surface marine data gathered by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) become available about 2-5 days following the data month. The basic observational data are edited, using a "trimming" procedure to identify outliers with respect to climatological 3.5 sigma limits derived from 1950-79 ICOADS data. Two summary statistics, the mean and number of observations, are then calculated for each of 13 observed and derived variables, using ICOADS-compatible 2-degree latitude x 2-degree longitude boxes (see ICOADS Website).

    Although the box size is compatible with ICOADS, it should be noted that the trimming method (and data mixture) is effectively the same as that used for the original COADS Release 1 (1854-1979) data. In contrast, separate sets of "standard" and "enhanced" statistics have been produced for more recent ICOADS releases.

    Monthly ASCII files since 1991 of the observational data used to construct these monthly summaries are available as described in this README (its Technical Notes also provide some detailed information about the data). Monthly ASCII files of data for 1998-date, i.e., possibly extending past the current ending date of ICOADS, may be found in the "ascii" subdirectory as described in this README.

    The Local Access Server provides extensive capabilities for visualization and subsetting of NCEP Real-time Marine netCDF files.

Caveats:

  • For January 1991 through approximately 3 August 1991 the field for total cloudiness in the individual observations that were used actually contains low cloud amount. Therefore, the monthly summaries of total cloudiness have been set to missing until September 1991.

Related File Naming & Structure Information:

File Names:

  • var.stat.nc   (In directory: /Datasets/ncep.marine/)

Dataset Format and Size:

  • PSD standard NetCDF >12 Mbyte file for each monthly file.

Missing Data:

  • Missing data is flagged with a value of -9.96921e+36f.

Citation:

  • Please note: If you acquire NCEP_Marine data products from PSD, we ask that you acknowledge us in your use of the data. This may be done by including text such as NCEP_Marine data provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their Web site at http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/ in any documents or publications using these data. We would also appreciate receiving a copy of the relevant publications. This will help PSD to justify keeping the NCEP_Marine data set freely available online in the future. Thank you!

References:

Original Source:

Contact:

  • NetCDF questions:

    Physical Sciences Division: Data Management
    NOAA/ESRL/PSD
    325 Broadway
    Boulder, CO 80305-3328
    esrl.psd.data@noaa.gov
  • Data questions:

    Scott D. Woodruff, IT Specialist
    NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (R/PSD1)
    325 Broadway
    Boulder, CO 80305 USA
    Phone: +1 303-497-6747
    FAX: +1 303-497-6449
    e-mail: Scott.D.Woodruff@noaa.gov