ECCO V4r4b: Monthly Ocean Bottom Pressure on LLC90 Grid, 1992-2018

Monthly-averaged ocean bottom pressure and pressure anomaly data on the native Lat-Lon-Cap 90 grid from the ECCO Version 4 Release 4b ocean and sea-ice state estimate. The dataset is a dynamically consistent reconstruction produced by NASA, covering the period from January 1992 to January 2018. It assimilates observations from multiple satellite missions and in-situ programs.

Use Cases

• Modeling global ocean circulation and mass transport based on ocean bottom pressure fields.
• Analyzing long-term trends in ocean mass and sea-level change based on the 26-year time series.
• Validating satellite gravimetry data (e.g., from GRACE) against a model-based state estimate.
• Studying ocean-atmosphere coupling and climate variability using the dynamically consistent reconstruction.

Strengths

• Assimilates multiple observational constraints including satellite altimetry, SST, SSS, OBP, sea ice, and in-situ profiles.
• Covers a 26-year period from 1992-01-01 to 2018-01 01.
• Provides data on a high-resolution native model grid (LLC90).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data freshness should be verified as the last metadata update is listed as a future date (2026-03-13).

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Collection Method

Dynamically and kinematically consistent reconstruction (state estimate) from the MITgcm model, fit to observations in a least-squares sense.

Time Range

1992-01-01 to 2018-01-01.

Freshness

Last metadata update listed as 2026-03-13.

Geography

Global ocean coverage.