MEDTRANS Data

  Download MEDTRANS data-set (6.55 MB)

The MEDTRANS data-set presents a new detailed climatology of temperature-salinity distributions in the Subtropical Northeast Atlantic (25 – 45°N and 6 – 35°W), with 25-m depth interval and 30-km horizontal resolution.

The main source of the data is the World Ocean Database (WOD) (the National Oceanographic Data Center, http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/) from 1950 to 2012, which includes OSD (bottle, XCTD, low-resolution CTD casts), CTD (high-resolution CTD casts) and PFL (mainly ARGO float casts). All data underwent a rigorous quality control, as well as preliminary filtering for the instrumental and eddy related noise.

 

The gridding is performed along 53 neutral density surfaces (Jackett and McDougall, 1997) using Barnes’ Optimum Interpolation technique (Barnes, 1964). Following the data distribution, the radius of the Gaussian gridding function decreases towards the Iberian coast. The shape of the gridding function takes into account the influence of bottom topography on the characteristics of oceanic flows (Bashmachnikov et al., 2014).

The geostrophic currents in the upper 700 m layer are computed using the 1900-m reference level.

 

Data format of the MATLAB data file

 

Aknowledgements

The results were obtained under MEDTRANS project funded by FCT (Mechanisms of transport and dispersion of the Mediterranean Water in the subtropical Northeast Atlantic, PTDC/MAR/117265/2010, CO-FCUL)

 

References
  • Barnes, S.L., 1964: A Technique for Maximizing Details in Numerical Weather Map Analysis. Journal of Applied Meteorology, 3, 396–409.
  • Jackett, D.R. & T.J. McDougall, 1997: A Neutral Density Variable for the World’s Oceans. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 27, 237–263.
  • Bashmachnikov, I., F. Neves, A. Nascimento, J. Medeiros, J. Dias, I. Ambar, X. Carton, (2014): Detailed temperature-salinity distribution in the Northeast Atlantic from ship and Argo vertical casts, Ocean Science Discussions, 11, 1473-1517, www.ocean-sci-discuss.net/11/1473/2014/