Abstract
Ocean processes in the Southwest North Atlantic (SWNA) play an important
role in long-term earth and ocean climate change. This region is also a
resource-rich coastal zone with abundant fisheries and other material
assets. Combined, the previously released NCEI Northwest Atlantic (NWA)
regional climatology (RC) and newly developed SWNA RC provide complete
coverage of the Gulf Stream system, which is the critical element of
northward heat transport and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning
Circulation. The SWNA RC is a collection of high-resolution
quality-controlled temperature and salinity fields on standard depth
levels from the sea surface to 4,900 m depth. This RC is based on
temperature and salinity observations from the 2018 release of the World
Ocean Database. The coverage includes the years 1955 to 2017 by annual,
seasonal, and monthly fields for the entire period, as well as for each
of the six decades. All fields computed on three horizontal grids:
1°x1°, 1/4°x1/4°, and 1/10°x1/10° degree. The SWNA RC is instrumental
for assessing ocean climate changes in this region of the North Atlantic
Ocean over the 1955-2017 time period and can be used in various climate
studies, environmental research projects, and related applications.