EN4 quality controlled ocean data: Download EN.4.0.2 with (updated) bias adjustments from Gouretski and Reseghetti (2010)

Download profiles

These zip files each contain monthly files of the profile data with quality information.

Help with downloading

Use the links on the left to download the EN4 dataset a year at a time. Only available for download are files containing profiles.

If you require the whole dataset one way to do this is to use wget. To do this download the file below (and edit it if not all files are required).
EN.4.0.2_Profiles_g10_download_list.txt

Note: the above method was written for Linux systems but should also be applicable to other operating systems with wget installed.

File formats

The data files are stored in zip files. These can be unpacked using standard utilities such as unzip on Linux systems. Within the zip files are data files which are in NetCDF classic format (sometimes referred to as NetCDF3 files). The contents of these are summarised in the links below:

• Profile file format
• Analysis file format

File naming convention

We use a standardised file naming convention. For the zip files the form is:

    dataset.X.Y.Z.type.[E.]year.extension

For the data files an expanded form is used:

    dataset.X.Y.Z.θ.type.[E.]date.extension

The sections of the names are:

Citing the data

When using the data set in a paper, please quote the version number (EN4.0.2), the date the data were downloaded and cite the following:

Good, S. A., M. J. Martin and N. A. Rayner, 2013. EN4: quality controlled ocean temperature and salinity profiles and monthly objective analyses with uncertainty estimates, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 118, 6704-6716, doi:10.1002/2013JC009067

Where appropriate please also acknowledge the data sources used to create EN4.

The reference for the bias adjustments is:

Gouretski, V. and F. Reseghetti, 2010. On depth and temperature biases in bathythermograph data: Development of a new correction scheme based on analysis of a global ocean database, Deep-Sea Research I, 57, 812-833, doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2010.03.011

The expendable bathythermograph (XBT) bias adjustments that were used were downloaded from http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/XBT_BIAS/xbt_bias.html; the corrections are referred to as 'v13' in the filenames as the webpage from which the adjustments were obtained was last modified in April 2013.

Updates

This dataset is updated periodically. Please contact us to request an update.

Changes compared to EN.4.0.1

The main changes compared to the previous version of the dataset are:

• A fresh download of the source data performed in December 2013.
• Following feedback from users about problems with the data in the Black Sea, the climatology for the Black Sea and Caspian Sea was updated using the WOA09.
• Following feedback from a user about erroneous data, all observations with latitude and longitude of exactly 0 degrees are rejected.