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New high-resolution Southwest North Atlantic Regional Climatology
  • +1
  • Alexey Mishonov,
  • Dan Seidov,
  • Olga Baranova,
  • Katharine Weathers
Alexey Mishonov
NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI-MD

Corresponding Author:alexey.mishonov@noaa.gov

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Dan Seidov
NOAA/NODC
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Olga Baranova
National Centers for Environmental Information (formerly NODC)
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Katharine Weathers
General Dynamics Information Technology Mississippi
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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.