INTRODUCTION
Various data from the BMRC Ocean Analysis system are available from time to time via the Bureau Web Server.
The data are written in formatted ASCII files (see below). The analysis is done level-by-level, month by month, with a simple statistical model for predicting next month's fields from the present (i.e., no dynamical model).
FORMAT OF DATA FILES
The files contain compressed ASCII-format dumps of the Indian -Pacific Ocean tropical analyses (30°S-40°N), usually one year per file. Plots of these fields can be accessed via the BMRC Ocean Analysis system or through the TAO Home Page.
There are 136 grid points east-west beginning at 30E, then every two degrees to 60W. There are 71 points north-south, 30S, 29S, ... 40N. There are 33 possible fields. Those with k=-7 through to k=0 correspond to i) SST, ii) mixed layer depth, iii) 150m depth-avergaed temperature, iv) 400m depth-averaged temperature, v) depth of the 28C isotherm, vi) depth of the 25C isotherm, vii) depth of the 20C isotherm, and viii) depth of the 15C isotherm. Levels k=1, 2, .. correspond to the NODC standard levels.
Each file contains blocks of information with headers like
Field: PARAM FORMAT: (3i8)
# imt, jmt,km
Field: X GRID FORMAT: (10f8.2)
# x(i), in degrees east of Greenwich
Field: Y GRID FORMAT:
(10f8.2) # y(j), in degrees North of 90 South
Field: Z GRID FORMAT: (10f8.2)
# z(k), in meters down from surface
Field: KMT MASK FORMAT: (20i4)
# Number of levels at i,j points (0 => l
Field: ANAL K=-5 FORMAT: (10f8.2) #
16-01-1982 12:00:00
Field: ERROR K=-5 FORMAT: (10f8.2) #
16-01-1982 12:00:00
Field: ANAL K=-1 FORMAT: (10f8.2) #
16-01-1982 12:00:00
Field: ERROR K=-1 FORMAT: (10f8.2) # 16-01-1982
12:00:00
Field: ANAL K= 1 FORMAT: (10f8.2) #
16-01-1982 12:00:00
Field: ERROR K= 1 FORMAT: (10f8.2) # 16-01-1982
12:00:00
The mask field (in effect the number of vertical levels for each 2x1 location) may not be included with each field. The command "grep Field" will list the information in each file.
The estimated error field may not be included with all files. Details of
these analysis error estimates can be found in the following papers:
Smith, N.R. 1995: An Improved System for Tropical Ocean Subsurface
Temperature Analyses. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 12, 850-870.
Smith, N.R. 1991: Objective quality controls and performance diagnostics of
an oceanic subsurface thermal analysis scheme.
J. Geophys. Res., 96(Suppl.), 3279-3287.
There is a FORTRAN program "scan_dump.f" which "scans" through these files; at the moment all it does is print the header information but it can easily be modified to extract all the data for a particular level. Note that it has been modified to take account of the KMT MASK and ERROR fields.
The number of (x,y,z) grid points is written after the PARAM header.
The zonal grid is written after the X GRID header, and so forth.
The levels corresponding to k=1, 2, ... etc are after Z GRID.
The date of the analysis is written after the "#" (the month is in columns 46:47, the year in 49:52).
A script like that following can be used to download the data (most will still need a passwd; see contact at further information; note that there have been recent changes to the mode of access 27/5/2003):
#!/bin/csh
ftp -i -n -v ftp.bom.gov.au <<'FTP'
user bom052 passwd
cd ANALS
mget scan_dump.f
binary
mget IndPac.*
quit
'FTP'
PRESENT HOLDING
The following files are presently being held on the server:
.: -rw-rw-r-- 1 252 45 6420409 Jan 19 1999 IndPac.1980.Z -rw-rw-r-- 1 252 45 6418991 Jan 19 1999 IndPac.1981.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6460201 Jan 19 1999 IndPac.1982.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6456919 Jan 19 1999 IndPac.1983.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6449133 Jan 19 1999 IndPac.1984.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6556519 Jan 19 1999 IndPac.1985.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6561271 Jan 20 1999 IndPac.1986.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6597787 Jan 20 1999 IndPac.1987.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6602369 Jan 20 1999 IndPac.1988.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6603681 Jan 20 1999 IndPac.1989.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6573631 Jan 20 1999 IndPac.1990.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6586093 Jan 20 1999 IndPac.1991.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6500795 Jan 20 1999 IndPac.1992.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6544457 Jan 20 1999 IndPac.1993.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6570318 Jan 20 1999 IndPac.1994.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6552009 Jan 20 1999 IndPac.1995.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6540760 Jan 20 1999 IndPac.1996.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6483673 Jan 20 1999 IndPac.1997.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6503011 Oct 06 1999 IndPac.1998.Z -rw-rw-r-- 1 252 45 6518943 Nov 25 2000 IndPac.1999.Z -rw-rw-r-- 1 252 45 6520940 Mar 15 2002 IndPac.2000.Z -rw-rw-r-- 1 252 45 6465851 Aug 14 2003 IndPac.2001.Z -rw-rw-r-- 1 252 45 6569353 Aug 14 2003 IndPac.2002.Z -rw-rw-r-- 1 252 45 6627001 Oct 19 2004 IndPac.2003.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6607859 Jan 01 2006 IndPac.2004.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6569711 Oct 09 2008 IndPac.2005.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6580175 Oct 09 2008 IndPac.2006.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6586705 Oct 09 2008 IndPac.2007.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6574589 Aug 19 19:00 IndPac.2008.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 6025510 Nov 04 20:19 IndPac.2009.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 3394 Dec 24 2003 README -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 1279 Aug 20 2008 WPI_Log.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 252 45 1299 Aug 20 2008 scan_dump.f
FURTHER INFORMATION
These data are available for research purposes. Please do not pass them on to
3rd parties without permission of myself or the Bureau. They should not be used
for commercial purposes.
If you have comments or suggestions, email Claire Spillman at C.Spillman@bom.gov.au
