NOCS Flux Dataset

Introduction

NOCS v2.0 is a monthly mean gridded dataset of marine surface meteorology and fluxes constructed using optimal interpolation using ship data only from ICOADS v2.4. The dataset is presented as monthly mean values on a 1˚ area grid and each grid-box is characterised with estimates of random, bias and total uncertainty. The monthly mean dataset is calculated from daily estimates of each variable and the standard deviation of these daily values within each month is also presented. Users are advised to take account of the uncertainty estimates provided in any analysis, and to note that in very poorly sampled regions, such as the Southern Ocean, the uncertainty estimates themselves may be unreliable.
Surface meteorological fields have been adjusted to account for varying measurement heights and for known biases (see Berry and Kent publication submitted to BAMS for more information). Surface fluxes have been calculated from daily fields of the surface meteorological parameters in the dataset using bulk parameterisations (Reed 1977; Clark et al. 1974; Smith 1980; 1988).

Access to data and software

Data and software supplied to the BADC are stored in the BADC NOCS Flux archive.

Data, software and metadata submission

Data submitted to the BADC should ideally conform to the Climate and Forecast (CF) Metadata Conventions.

The BADC also runs a web-based CF-checker that allows you to upload a file to test for compliance with the CF Convention. Visit the CF-checker page to use this service.

Documentation

References
Berry, D. I. and E. C. Kent, A New Air-Sea Interaction Gridded Dataset from ICOADS with Uncertainty Estimates, submitted to Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. (preprint available from http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/noc_flux/)
Clark, N. E., L. Eber, R. M. Laurs, J. A. Renner, and J. F. T. Saur, 1974: Heat exchange between ocean and atmosphere in the eastern North Pacific for 1961–71. NOAA Tech. Rep. NMFS SSRF- 682, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Washington, DC, 108 pp.
Reed, R. K., 1977: On estimating insolation over the ocean. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 7, 482–485.
Smith S. D., 1980: Wind stress and heat flux over the ocean in gale force winds, Journal of Physical Oceanography, 10, 709-726.
Smith S. D., 1988: Coefficients for sea surface wind stress, heat flux, and wind profiles as a function of wind speed and temperature, J. Geophys. Res., 93(C12), 15467-15472.

Links

NOCS Flux Dataset Home Page (http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/noc_flux/)

PUBLICATIONS

Berry, D.I. and E.C. Kent, A New Air-Sea Interaction Gridded Dataset from ICOADS with Uncertainty Estimates, submitted to Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. (preprint available from http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/noc_flux/)

Citation

Contacts

General queries about these pages or browsing the data should be directed to the BADC support line.

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