ICOADS 2 Degree

The International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS) is the most extensive collection of surface marine data available for the world ocean over the past two centuries.

Variable	Statistic	Level
Sea Surface Temperature (S)	Multiple	Surface
Air Temperature (A)	Multiple	Surface
Scalar Wind (W)	Multiple	Surface
U-wind (U)	Multiple	Surface
V-wind (V)	Multiple	Surface
Sea Level Pressure (P)	Multiple	Surface
Cloudiness (C)	Multiple	Surface
Specific Humidity (Q)	Multiple	Surface
Relative Humidity (R)	Multiple	Surface
Sea-air Temperature difference (S-A)	Multiple	Surface
Sensible Heat Parameter ([S-A]W)*	Multiple	Surface
Sat Sp Hum at SST minus Sp Hum (Qs-Q)	Multiple	Surface
Latent Heat Parameter ([Qs-Q]W)*	Multiple	Surface
U-wind Stress (UW)*	Multiple	Surface
V-wind Stress (VW)*	Multiple	Surface
Sensible Heat Trans Eastward Param (UA)*	Multiple	Surface
Sensible Heat Trans Northward Param (VA)*	Multiple	Surface
Latent Heat Trans Eastward Param (UQ)*	Multiple	Surface
Latent Heat Trans Northward Param (VQ)*	Multiple	Surface
Zonal Latent Heat Parameter (U[Qs-Q])*	Multiple	Surface
Meridional Latent Heat Parameter (V[Qs-Q])*	Multiple	Surface
Scalar Wind cubed (WWW)	Multiple	Surface

Variable	Statistic	Level
Multiple	First Sextile	Surface
Multiple	Third Sextile (Median)	Surface
Multiple	Fifth Sextile	Surface
Multiple	Mean	Surface
Multiple	Number of Observations	Surface
Multiple	Standard Deviation	Surface
Multiple	Mean Day of Month of Observations	Surface
Multiple	Fraction of Observations in Daylight	Surface
Multiple	Mean Longitude (Off SW Corner of Box) of Observations	Surface
Multiple	Mean Latitude (Off SW Corner of Box) of Observations	Surface

The netCDF files are subdivided into "standard" and "enhanced" products, which reflect the "trimming" (quality control) procedure used and the data mixture. In the standard products, the data have been edited using climatological 3.5 standard-deviation (sigma) limits, with the observations limited (as nearly as practical) to those from ships. In the "enhanced" products, in contrast, the data have been edited using broader 4.5 sigma limits to better represent extreme climate events, with observations from ships plus from other in situ marine platform types (e.g., drifting and moored buoys).

The Local Access Server provides extensive capabilities for visualization and subsetting of ICOADS netCDF files. Please refer to the ICOADS Website for more information about the ICOADS project, observational and summary products, and associated metadata.

Small numerical biases in previous netCDF files are described in the ICOADS Website NetCDF page.

File Names:

Dataset Format and Size:

Missing Data:

Please note: If you acquire ICOADS data products from PSD, we ask that you acknowledge us in your use of the data. This may be done by including text such as ICOADS data provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their Web site at http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/ in any documents or publications using these data. We would also appreciate receiving a copy of the relevant publications. This will help PSD to justify keeping the ICOADS data set freely available online in the future. Thank you!

Multinational. The US contribution is the result of a cooperative project between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)--specifically its Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), its National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), conducted jointly with the University of Colorado--and the National Science Foundation's National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).