The near-Global Ocean Mesoscale Eddy Atmospheric-Oceanic-Biological Interaction Observational Dataset (GOMEAD)

The ocean is a superposition of various motions of different scales that flow all the time, of which mesoscale eddies are the most common. The high kinetic energy they carry has an important impact on global climate, productivity, ocean circulation, fisheries, and freshwater transport. This dataset utilizes multi-source data such as sea level anomalies, multi-satellite merged water color, global Argo profile float, precipitation, and wind field data and applies a vector geometry–based eddy detection algorithm and spatiotemporal matching method to automatically detect and track global mesoscale eddies. A comprehensive display of the observation results of the impact of mesoscale eddies on the ocean-atmosphere-biology in the past 30 years since 1993 is provided. The dataset includes five sub-databases: 1) an eddy database generated from the geostrophic current anomaly field calculated from the sea level anomaly; 2) a biological eddy database generated from spatiotemporal matching of multi-satellite merged chlorophyll dataset; 3) eddy vertical structures obtained from spatiotemporal matching of global Argo profiling floats; 4) an eddy-ocean database obtained from the spatiotemporal matching of sea surface temperature data; and 5) an eddy-atmosphere database obtained from the spatiotemporal matching of meteorological data.Observation data comes from the latest 2018 version of DUACS sea level anomaly data (1993-2019; 25 km × 25 km; daily), and the multi-satellite merged chlorophyll data provided by HERMES' Globcolour database (1997-2019; 4 km × 4 km; eight-day average), global float data (1995-2019; daily) in the profile temperature and salinity data set of Argo International Project, atmospheric element data in AMSR-E/ AMSR-II data (2002-2019; 25 km × 25 km; daily), and AVHRR sea surface temperature data provided by NASA (1993-2019; 25 km × 25 km; daily).The dataset has a total size of 1.24 T, and there are four different regions (North Pacific (NP: 5°-65°N, 100°-260°E), North Atlantic (NA: 5°-65°N, 260°-360°E), North Indian Ocean (NI: 5°-30°N, 45°-100°E) and Southern Hemisphere Ocean (SHO: 5°-65°S, 0°-360°E)) as subfolders of the directory. Each subfolder includes the eddy tracking file (eddy_tracks.nc) and the structure based on the eddy of the entire life cycle (not less than four weeks) stored and named after the eddy identification number (ID.nc) (these files can be read using MATLAB, Python and other language software commonly used in ocean and atmosphere studies, where the netCDF file can be read by the MATLAB code provided in the dataset).The stored information includes the basic characteristics of the eddy (polarity (in the northern hemisphere, 1 means cyclonic eddy, -1 means anticyclonic eddy; southern hemisphere opposite), center latitude and longitude, shape, size (km), life cycle (day), geostrophic anomaly field (m/s), etc.), the sea surface chlorophyll concentration (mg/m3) matched by the eddy, and the Argo temperature (degree C) and salt (psu) profile, sea surface temperature (degree C), and various atmospheric elements (precipitation rate (mm/h), ten-meter wind field (m/s), liquid water content in clouds (mm), water vapor content (mm), etc.), except for eddy_tracks.nc, the size of each structure does not exceed 100MB. The researcher can determine the sub-file through the research area, and then use “eddy_tracks.nc” to screen the research start time and end time and other parameters to select the eddy serial number that meets the research needs in the database, and download the corresponding data.To facilitate downloading and research, the data of the four sea areas are packaged by years to reduce the size of a single compressed file. An optimized ID assignment rule is used, such that the eddies are sorted in ascending orders according to the date, latitude, and longitude when they are detected.File specific fields are as follows:Eddy Tracking File (eddy_track.nc)1) ID: Identification number of the eddy. All observations within the same trajectory have the same ID.2) time: Date of the detected eddy (serial date numbers, preset date (January 0, 0000) in the proleptic ISO calendar).3) eddy_type: Polarity of the eddy. In the northern hemisphere, 1 represents cyclonic, -1 represents anticyclonic.4) center_latitude: Latitudes of the eddy center.5) center_longitude: Longitudes of the eddy center.6) shapes_latitude: Latitudes of the eddy boundary.7) shapes_longitude: Longitudes of the eddy boundary.8) radius: Radius of the eddy (m).9) tracks: Observation sequence number, days from eddy first detection.Eddy information file (ID.nc) (Note: If there is no matching element, it will be displayed as NAN)1) ID: Identification number of the eddy.2) time: Date of the detected eddy (serial date numbers, preset date (January 0, 0000) in the proleptic ISO calendar).3) eddy_type: Polarity of the eddy. In the northern hemisphere, 1 represents cyclonic, -1 represents anticyclonic.4) radius: Radius of the eddy (m).5) shapes: Longitudes and latitudes of the eddy boundary.6) center: Longitudes and latitudes of the eddy center.7) argo: Longitudes and latitudes of Argo matched within 2 times radius of the eddy.8) argo_dimension: Argo vertical profile data dimensions (levels) matched within 2 times radius of eddy.9) argo_tracks: Argo corresponds to the observation sequence number, days from eddy first detection.10) argo_type: Type of Argo matched within 2 times radius of the eddy (R: real-time; D: delayed; A: real-time adjustment).11) argo_press: Sea water pressure profile (decibar) obtained by the Argo matched within 2 times radius of the eddy.12) argo_sals: Salinity profile (psu) obtained by the Argo matched within 2 times radius of the eddy.13) argo_temps: Potential temperature profile (degree C) obtained by the Argo matched within 2 times radius of the eddy.14) sst_lon: Longitudes of sea surface temperature matched within 2.5 times radius of the eddy.15) sst_lat: Latitudes of sea surface temperature matched within 2.5 times radius of the eddy.16) sst_dimension: Sea surface temperature data dimensions (sst_lon, sst_lat, sst_lon × sst_lat) matched within 2.5 times radius of eddy.17) sst: Sea surface temperature (degree C) matched within 2.5 times radius of the eddy.18) uv_lat: Latitudes of geostrophic current anomaly matched within 2.5 times radius of the eddy.19) uv_lon: Longitudes of geostrophic current anomaly matched within 2.5 times radius of the eddy.20) ssuv_dimension: Geostrophic current anomaly data dimensions (uv_lon, uv_lat, uv_lon×uv_lat) matched within 2.5 times radius of eddy.21) ssu: Meridional component of geostrophic current anomaly (m/s) matched within 2.5 times radius of the eddy.22) ssv: Zonal component of geostrophic velocity anomaly (m/s) matched within 2.5 times radius of eddy.23) amsr_lat: Latitudes of atmospheric background field matched within the range of 4°×4° outward from the eddy center.24) amsr_lon: Longitudes of atmospheric background field matched within the range of 4°×4° outward from the eddy center.25) amsr_dimension: Atmospheric background field data dimensions (amsr _lon, amsr _lat, amsr _lon×amsr _lat) matched within the range of 4° × 4° outward from the eddy center.26) wspdLF: Low-frequency 10-meter wind speed (m/s) matched within the range of 4°×4° outward from the eddy center (10.7 GHz and above).27) wspdMF: Intermediate-frequency 10-meter wind speed (m/s) matched within the range of 4°×4° outward from the eddy center (18.7 GHz and above).28) vapor: Water vapor content (mm) matched within the range of 4° × 4° outwards from the eddy center.29) cloud: Cloud liquid water content (mm) matched within the range of 4° × 4° outwards from the eddy center.30) rain: Precipitation rate (mm/h) matched within the range of 4° × 4° outwards from the eddy center.31) chl_lat: Latitudes of sea surface chlorophyll matched within 2.5 times radius of the eddy.32) chl_lon: Longitudes of sea surface chlorophyll matched within 2.5 times radius of the eddy.33) chl_dimension: sea surface chlorophyll data dimensions (chl_lon, chl_lat, chl_lon×chl_lat) matched within 2.5 times radius of eddy.34) chl: sea surface chlorophyll (mg/m3) matched within 2.5 times radius of the eddy.The global ocean mesoscale eddy sea-atmosphere coupled observation data database contains rich information, and it can directly provide mesoscale eddies and sea-atmosphere coupled information data for research on global mesoscale eddies and related sea-air biological processes.