TOGA COARE OCEAN RESEARCH FILES

The Data Support Section of the Scientific Computing Division at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has several
oceanographic datasets relevant to TOGA COARE.  

Richard Reynolds and Diane Stokes, from Coupled Model Project at the
National Meteorological Center (NMC), have provided global SST
analyzes.  The optimum interpolation (OI) sea surface temperature (SST)
analysis is produced weekly on a one degree grid.  The analysis uses in
situ and satellite SST plus SST's simulated by sea-ice cover.  Before
the analysis is computed, the satellite data is adjusted for biases
using the method of described by Reynolds (1988) and Reynolds and
Marsico (1993).  A description of the analysis can be found in Reynolds
and Smith (1993).  The dataset begins November 1981 and extends
through the current date.

Ants Leetmaa, also from the Coupled Model Project at NMC, has provided
three dimensional fields of velocity and temperature in the tropical
Pacific Ocean.  These analyzes are produced by an ocean data
assimilation system in conjunction with a general circulation model.
The weekly one degree latitude by one and a half degree longitude grids
at 27 depth levels are available for 1991 through July 1993.  An early
version of the analysis system is described by Leetma and Ji (1989)
while the assimilation method is discussed by Derber and Rosati
(1989).

Special TOGA COARE IOP time subsets (9/1992-5/1993) of these datasets
are available in this directory.  The files are described below.

Further information concerning these and other ocean research datasets
available from NCAR may be obtained by contacting:


Steve Worley
Data Support Section /SCD
NCAR
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO 80307
USA

electronic mail:  worley@ncar.ucar.edu
telephone      :  303-497-1248
FAX            :  303-497-1137


                               REFERENCES
Derber, J. and A. Rosati, 1989: A Global Oceanic Data Assimilation System.
      J. Physical Oceanography, 19, 1333-1347.

Leetmaa, A. and M. Ji, 1989: Operational Hindcasting of the
      Tropical Pacific. Dynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans, 13, 465-490.

Reynolds, R. W., 1988:  A real-time global sea surface temperature
     analysis.  J. Climate,  1, 75-86.

Reynolds, R. W. and D. C. Marsico, 1993:  An improved real-time
     global sea surface temperature analysis.  J. Climate, 6,
     768-774.

Reynolds, R. W. and T. S. Smith, 1993: Improved global sea surface
     temperature analyses.  J. Climate, accepted subject to
     revisions.
 
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NOTE:  All file are ASCII unless otherwise noted

Reynolds and Stokes SST files:
==============================
sst.format               format and dataset description
sst.1992_sep2dec.Z       SST 9/92->12/92, ASCII, Unix Compressed
sst.1993_jan2may.Z       SST 1/93-> 5/93, ASCII, Unix Compressed
sst.1992.sample          sample data printout for Sept. 1992
sst.1993.sample          sample data printout for Jan. 1993
sst.mask.format          format and dataset description for land/sea mask
sst.mask                 land/sea mask data

Leetmaa subsurface temperature and velocity files:
==================================================
subsfc.format            format and dataset description
subsfc.sample            sample data printout for Sept. 1992
subsfc.mask.format       format and data description for t, u, and v masks
subsfc.mask              temperature and velocity land/sea component grid masks

--- temperature and velocity data files, all files are --
--- IEEE floating point binary format -------------------
subsfc.uvt.1992.sep      September 1992
subsfc.uvt.1992.oct      October 1992
subsfc.uvt.1992.nov      November 1992
subsfc.uvt.1992.dec      December 1992
subsfc.uvt.1993.jan      January 1993
subsfc.uvt.1993.feb      February 1993
subsfc.uvt.1993.mar      March 1993
subsfc.uvt.1993.apr      April 1993
subsfc.uvt.1993.may      May 1993
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