Sea Salinity in the Australian Region at Five Standard Depths

ESRI grids provide sea salinity data for the Australian region (100-200E, 50-0S) on a 0.1-degree grid. The data is derived from the CARS2000 seasonal climatology, which was generated using a Loess filter on historical oceanographic data from sources like the World Ocean Atlas 98 and CSIRO archives. It includes values at depths of 0, 150, 500, 1000, and 2000 metres, representing mean and seasonal cycles.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean circulation and water mass properties based on salinity gradients.
• Studying seasonal and annual salinity cycles in the Australian region using the provided amplitude fields.
• Creating baseline climatological maps for comparison with contemporary satellite or in-situ salinity measurements.
• Analyzing vertical salinity structure for oceanographic research or educational purposes.

Strengths

• Data is provided at five standard depth levels (0, 150, 500, 1000, 2000m), offering a vertical profile.
• Spatial resolution is 0.1 degrees, which is higher than the base CARS2000 0.5-degree grid.
• Derived from the CARS2000 climatology, which synthesizes data from multiple authoritative archives like World Ocean Atlas 98 and CSIRO.
• Includes decomposed seasonal signals (mean, annual amplitude, and semi-annual cycle) for temporal analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is interpolated and modeled (CARS2000), not direct measurements, and inherits all limitations of that source.
• The last update date is 2026-04-28; freshness should be verified against more recent oceanographic data.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, derived from CARS2000 which uses World Ocean Atlas 98 and CSIRO Marine and NIWA archives.

Collection Method

Linear interpolation and Loess filtering of historical ocean cast data to create mean and seasonal climatological fields.

Time Range

Climatological period covered by the CARS2000 source (likely centered around 2000).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-28 13:18:50.819068

Geography

Australian region (100-200E, 50 0S).