Arctic Regional Climatology

The Arctic Ocean is a hub of globally significant, intersecting economic and environmental activity and interest. Climate change has disproportionately impacted the region, resulting in rising ocean temperatures and continued loss of summer sea ice. Natural resource exploration and extraction initiatives also have an increased presence and impact within the region.

Arctic

This climatology uses all the Arctic area data available in the World Ocean Database through the end of 2010.

Metadata

Temperature

Data   |   Figures

Salinity

Data   |   Figures
Citations

Boyer, T.P., O.K. Baranova, M. Biddle, D.R. Johnson, A.V. Mishonov, C. Paver, D. Seidov and M. Zweng (2015), Arctic Ocean Regional Climatology (NCEI Accession 0115771). [indicate subset used]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. doi:10.7289/V5QC01J0.

Seidov, D., J.I. Antonov, K.M. Arzayus, O.K. Baranova, M. Biddle, T.P. Boyer, D.R. Johnson, A.V. Mishonov, C. Paver and M.M. Zweng, 2015, Oceanography north of 60°N from World Ocean Database, Progress in Oceanography, 132, 153-173, doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2014.02.003.

Area

All longitudes from 60°N to 90°N latitudes.

Horizontal Resolution

Temperature and salinity are available on a 1°x1° and a 1/4°x1/4° latitude/longitude grid.

Temporal Resolution

Each climatology has an annual (all-data), seasonal, and monthly time period calculation. Seasons are Winter (Jan.-Mar.), Spring (Apr.-Jun.), Summer (Jul.-Sep.), and Fall (Oct.-Dec.).

Vertical Resolution

Temperature and salinity are available on 87 standard levels with higher vertical resolution than the World Ocean Atlas 2009 (WOA09), but levels extend from the surface to 4000 m.

Additional Fields

  • Statistical means (before objective analysis)
  • Standard deviation
  • Standard error
  • Data distribution
  • Observed minus analyzed
  • Difference of time period from annual climatological mean

Units

Temperature
°C
Salinity
Unitless on the Practical Salinity Scale-1978 [PSS]

Bathymetry

1° and 1/4° climatologies use ETOPO2 grid square mean

Method

The method used to calculate the mean climatological fields is detailed in Temperature: Locarnini et al., 2010, Salinity: Antonov et al., 2010. Additional details on the 1/4° climatological calculation are found in Boyer et al., 2005. The table from this publication giving radius of influence for the analysis procedure can be filled out with values for the 1/4° procedure as follows:

Pass1° radius of influence1/4° radius of influence
1892 km321 km
2669 km267 km
3446 km214 km

Related Publications

Antonov, J.I., D. Seidov, T.P. Boyer, R.A. Locarnini, A.V. Mishonov, H.E. Garcia, O.K. Baranova, M.M. Zweng, and D.R. Johnson, 2010. World Ocean Atlas 2009, Volume 2: Salinity. S. Levitus, Ed. NOAA Atlas NESDIS 69, 184 pp. https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/1259

Boyer, T., S. Levitus, H. Garcia, R.A. Locarnini, C. Stephens, J. Antonov, 2005: Objective analyses of annual, seasonal, and monthly temperature and salinity for the world ocean on a 0.25 degree grid. International Journal of Climatology, 25(7), 931-945.

Boyer, T.P., J.I. Antonov, O.K. Baranova, H.E. Garcia, D.R. Johnson, R.A. Locarnini, A.V. Mishonov, T.D. O’Brien, D. Seidov, I.V. Smolyar, M.M. Zweng, 2009. World Ocean Database 2009. S. Levitus, Ed., NOAA Atlas NESDIS 66, 216 pp. https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/1195

Locarnini, R.A., A.V. Mishonov, J.I. Antonov, T.P. Boyer, H.E. Garcia, O.K. Baranova, M.M. Zweng, and D.R. Johnson, 2010. World Ocean Atlas 2009, Volume 1: Temperature. S. Levitus, Ed. NOAA Atlas NESDIS 68, 184 pp. https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/1259