Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

World ocean annual mean absolute geostrophic velocity on marine geoid of EIGEN-6C4 from WOA13 (NCEI Accession 0208329)

Metadata Updated: July 1, 2025

This dataset contains annual mean geostrophic velocity calculated at depth corresponding to negative values of the marine geoid. It is calculated from two open sources from the geodetic (EIGEN-6C4) and oceanographic (NCEI) communities. The first source EIGEN-6C4 is a static global combined gravity field model developed by GFZ Potsdam and GRGS Toulouse up to degree and order 2190. The second source is the “World ocean geostrophic velocity inverted from World Ocean Atlas 2013 with the P-vector method” (NCEI accession 0121576). With the given non-positive values of the geoid, N, (i.e., for the oceans), the absolute geostrophic currents (u, v) are easily identified on N with 1 degree resolution from the second dataset except the equatorial zone (5oS – 5oN) due to the non-existence of the geostrophic balance. Altogether, the dataset contains 15,481 (u, v) data pairs. While there is no geostrophic motion at the surface if it coincided with the geoid, the opposite is not valid. This dataset shows that ocean geostrophic velocity doesn't zero at z=N. Data are in netcdf format.

Access & Use Information

License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Date 2025-05-16T15:33:27Z
Metadata Created Date December 4, 2020
Metadata Updated Date July 1, 2025
Reference Date(s) January 24, 2020 (publication)
Frequency Of Update asNeeded

Metadata Source

Harvested from NOAA/NESDIS/ncei/accessions

Graphic Preview

Preview graphic

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Date 2025-05-16T15:33:27Z
Metadata Created Date December 4, 2020
Metadata Updated Date July 1, 2025
Reference Date(s) January 24, 2020 (publication)
Responsible Party (Point of Contact)
Contact Email
Guid gov.noaa.nodc:0208329
Access Constraints Cite as: Chu, Peter C. (2020). World ocean annual mean absolute geostrophic velocity on marine geoid of EIGEN-6C4 from WOA13 (NCEI Accession 0208329). [indicate subset used]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.25921/3j6v-dw36. Accessed [date]., Use liability: NOAA and NCEI cannot provide any warranty as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of furnished data. Users assume responsibility to determine the usability of these data. The user is responsible for the results of any application of this data for other than its intended purpose.
Bbox East Long 180
Bbox North Lat 90
Bbox South Lat -90
Bbox West Long -180
Coupled Resource
Frequency Of Update asNeeded
Graphic Preview Description Preview graphic
Graphic Preview File https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/metadata/landing-page/bin/gfx?id=gov.noaa.nodc:0208329
Graphic Preview Type PNG
Harvest Object Id c493370a-bbb3-41e8-90f9-a27b0b912abc
Harvest Source Id c084a438-6f6b-470d-93e0-16aeddb9f513
Harvest Source Title NOAA/NESDIS/ncei/accessions
Licence accessLevel: Public
Lineage
Metadata Language eng
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-180.0, -90.0], [180.0, -90.0], [180.0, 90.0], [-180.0, 90.0], [-180.0, -90.0]]]}
Progress completed
Spatial Data Service Type
Spatial Reference System
Spatial Harvester True
Temporal Extent Begin 1950-01-01
Temporal Extent End 2013-12-31

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.