Mixed layer depth climatology computed with a density threshold criterion of 0.03kg/m3 from 10 m depth value
Date | 2022-11-23 | |||||||||||||||
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Author(s) | de Boyer Montégut Clément![]() |
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Affiliation(s) | 1 : Ifremer, LOPS (University of Brest - Ifremer - Cnrs - Ird, UMR6523), Plouzané, France | |||||||||||||||
DOI | 10.17882/91774 | |||||||||||||||
Publisher | SEANOE | |||||||||||||||
Keyword(s) | ocean surface Mixed Layer Depth, MLD, global ocean | |||||||||||||||
Abstract | The dataset made available here is the monthly climatology (i.e. 12 months) of ocean surface Mixed Layer Depth (MLD) over the global ocean, at 1 degree x 1 degree spatial resolution. It is provided as a netcdf data file embedded in a tar file at bottom of this page. A short documentation about the product is also available as a pdf readme file. The climatology is based on about 4.5 million casts/profiles of temperature and salinity measurements made at sea between January 1970 and November 2021. Those profiles data come from the ARGO program and from the NCEI-NOAA World Ocean Database (WOD). The MLD is computed on each individual cast/profile using a threshold criterion. The depth of the mixed layer is defined as the shallowest depth where the surface potential density of the profile is superior to a reference value taken close to the surface added with the chosen threshold. Here we take a threshold value for the density of 0.03kg/m3, and a surface reference depth fixed at 10m (de Boyer Montégut et al. JGR 2004, see reference details at bottom of page). This mixed layer is by definition homogeneous in density (up to 0.03 kg/m3 variations) and can also be called an isopycnal layer. |
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Licence | ![]() |
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Acknowledgements | The production of this MLD climatology relies on individual profile measurements of pressure/depth, temperature and salinity made at sea. Those data come from several sources. The Argo data were collected and made freely available by the International Argo Program and the national programs that contribute to it. (https://argo.ucsd.edu, https://www.ocean-ops.org). The Argo Program is part of the Global Ocean Observing System. All other kind of casts/profiles comes from the World Ocean Database (WOD, Boyer et al. 2018). First released in 1994, and updated regularly since then, the World Ocean Database represents the world’s largest collection of vertical profile data of ocean characteristics available internationally without restriction. | |||||||||||||||
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