SeaDataNet regional climatologies: an overview

Abstract

In the frame of the SeaDataNet project, several regional climatologies for the temperature and salinity are being developed by different groups. The data used for these climatologies are distributed by the 40 SeaDataNet data centers. Such climatologies have several uses: 1. the detection of outliers by comparison of the in situ data with the climatological fields, 2. the the optimization of locations of new observations, 3. the initialization of numerical hydrodynamic models. 4. definition of a reference state to identify anomalies and to detect long-term climatic trends Diva (Data Interpolating Variational Analysis) software is adapted to each region by taking into account the geometrical characteristics (coastlines, bathymetry) and the distribution of data (correlation length, signal-to-noise ratio, reference field). The regional climatologies treated in this work are: - JRA5: North Atlantic - JRA6: Mediterranean Sea - JRA7: Baltic Sea - JRA8: North Sea, Arctic Sea Several examples of gridded fields are presented in this work. The validation of the different products is carried out through a comparison with the last release of the widespread World Ocean Atlas 2005.