Southern Ocean Monthly Climatology by Yamazaki et al. provides interpolated oceanographic data for the region south of 40 degrees latitude. The dataset, sourced from Argo, MEOP, and World Ocean Database profiles, includes temperature, salinity, and mixed layer depth on a 1/4 to 1/2 degree grid. It was created using Data Interpolating Variational Analysis to incorporate under-ice observations often missed by other datasets.
Use Cases
- Investigating seasonal cycles in the Southern Ocean based on monthly climatological data.
- Improving ocean model parameterizations based on under-ice temperature and salinity profiles.
- Studying water mass formation and glacial melt processes based on high-resolution gridded data.
- Analyzing mixed layer depth variability based on derived MLD data products.
Strengths
- Incorporates under-ice profiling float and biologging data, which are often overlooked in other climatologies.
- Covers the Southern Ocean south of 40S with a horizontal grid resolution of 1/4 to 1/2 degrees.
- Uses Data Interpolating Variational Analysis, a method noted for consistent handling of topography and advection.
- Provides derived variables like mixed layer depth in addition to core temperature and salinity fields.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Data may reflect geographic and source bias inherent to the contributing observational platforms.
Provenance
- Source
- Australian Ocean Data Network (data_gov_au), based on work by Yamazaki et al.
- Collection Method
- Data Interpolating Variational Analysis (DIVAnd) applied to CTD data from Argo, MEOP, and the World Ocean Database.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-04-28 22:57:13.876555; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Southern Ocean, south of 40 degrees South latitude.