NOAA UFS Marine Reanalysis: Global Ocean and Sea Ice Data, 1979-2019

NOAA's Unified Forecast System Marine Reanalysis provides a 40-year global coupled sea ice and ocean reanalysis from 1979 to 2019. The product was produced by the UFS Research-to-Operation project using the UFS model prototype version-6 and the JEDI SOCA assimilation system. It assimilates extensive space-based marine observations and in-situ profile data to analyze ocean temperature, salinity, sea surface height, and sea ice concentration.

Use Cases

• Validate and improve ocean model forecasts based on assimilated temperature and salinity profiles.
• Analyze long-term trends in sea ice concentration based on the 40-year reanalysis.
• Assess sea surface height variability for climate studies based on the analyzed variable.
• Compare model free-run outputs with assimilation cycle outputs for data assimilation research.

Strengths

• Covers a 40-year reanalysis time period from 1979 to 2019.
• Assimilates extensive space-based marine observations and conventional in-situ profile data.
• Analyzes key ocean and sea ice variables: temperature, salinity, sea surface height, and sea ice concentration.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and data size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The description mentions it is an interim product released for feedback, suggesting potential refinements.

Provenance

Source

NOAA UFS Research-to-Operation project marine data assimilation team.

Collection Method

Produced using the UFS model prototype version-6 and JEDI SOCA assimilation system, with atmospheric forcing from CFSR (1979-1999) and GEFS (2000-2019).

Time Range

1979 to 2019

Geography

Global