Northern Hemisphere Sea-Level Pressure and 500 mb Height Grids, 1946-1993

U.S. Navy Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center produced daily sea-level pressure analyses on a 63-by-63 polar-stereographic grid covering the Northern Hemisphere from January 1946 to December 1993. The dataset also includes daily 500 millibar geopotential height grids for the period 1946 to 1955 on the same grid. Monthly grids were derived from the daily data by the data provider.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical atmospheric circulation patterns based on the daily sea-level pressure grids.
• Study mid-tropospheric weather systems based on the 500 millibar geopotential height data.
• Validate or calibrate climate models based on the long-term (1946-1993) time series of pressure data.
• Investigate spatial patterns of pressure anomalies across the Northern Hemisphere based on the polar-stereographic grid.

Strengths

• Data spans 48 years from 1946 to 1993, providing a long-term historical record.
• Spatial coverage is the entire Northern Hemisphere on a 63-by-63 polar-stereographic grid.
• Includes two key atmospheric variables: sea-level pressure and 500 mb geopotential height.

Limitations

• Last updated 1993-12-31 23:59:59.999000; freshness should be verified.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to the operational models of a single institution (U.S. Navy FNOC).

Provenance

Source

U.S. Navy Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center (FNOC)

Collection Method

Produced by operational models and later processed into monthly grids by the data provider.

Time Range

January 1946 to December 1993

Freshness

Last updated 1993-12-31 23:59:59.999000

Geography

Northern Hemisphere