World Ocean Isopycnal Level Absolute Geostrophic Velocity (WOIL-V) Inverted from GDEM with the P-Vector Method

Abstract

Three-dimensional dataset of world ocean climatological annual and monthly mean absolute geostrophic velocity in isopycnal level (called WOIL-V) has been produced from the United States (U.S.) Navy’s Generalized Digital Environmental Model (GDEM) temperature and salinity fields (open access from the website http://data.nodc.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/iso?id=gov.noaa.nodc:9600094) using the P-vector method. The data have horizontal resolution of 0.5° × 0.5°, and 222 isopycnal-levels. The total 13 data files include annual and monthly mean values. The WOIL-V is the only dataset of absolute geostrophic velocity in isopycnal level compatible to the GDEM (T, S) fields, and provides background ocean currents for oceanographic and climatic studies, especially in ocean modeling with the isopycnal coordinate system.

Keywords

• isopycnal level
• world ocean geostrophic velocity
• GDEM
• P-vector method
• climatology