The reconstructed wind stress dataset from 1875 - 1947


An important step in understanding the climate system is to simulate and study the past climate variability and variation using oceanic or atmospheric models, or both. Towards this goal, a long term of wind stress data, as the forcing of oceanic or climate models, is often required. Currently, the longest wind data is the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis dataset, back to 1948. Here we reconstructed the surface wind for the period from 1875-1947 using statistical technique and using the historic SST and SLP datasets. The details on the wind reconstruction can be found in Reconstructing the past wind stresses over the tropical Pacific Ocean from 1875 to 1947. The data domain covers the tropical Pacific ocean from 120E - 290E and 30S - 30 N, with the resolution of 2 degree x 2 degree.


Here is the dataset of the reconstructed winds in binary format. A ctl file is also included for instructing the detailed information on the domain, resolution and reading. To open the compressed file, use the command under unix/linux of "gunzip" and then "tar -xvf wind.tar". For consistency, we also include the surface winds from 1948-2005 in this dataset, which are directly obtained from NCEP/NCAR reanalysis dataset. This file contains both the zonal and meridional winds. Please click here for free download. Thank you.

Tropical Pacific upper ocean heat content analysis dataset from 1881 - 2000


A long-term analysis of the tropical Pacific upper ocean heat content (HC) has been obtained for the period from 1881-2000, by assimilating historic sea surface temperature dataset into an oceanic general circulation model (OGCM) with Ensemble Kalman filter. This analysis dataset has been validated against the NCEP (National Center of Environmental Prediction) heat content and the observed heat content for the period from 1980-2000. The details on this dataset can be found in Tropical Pacific upper ocean heat content variations and ENSO predictability during the period from 1881-2000. The data domain covers the tropical Pacific ocean from 120E - 290E and 30S - 30 N, with the resolution of 2 degree x 2 degree.


Here is the heat contact analysis dataset in matlab format. A ctl file and a matlab file are also included for instructing the detailed information on the domain, resolution and reading. Use the same steps as the above to open the compressed file. Please click here for free download.


Some Publications using the datasets

Deng, Z., Y. Tang and X. Zhou, 2008: The retrospective prediction of ENSO from 1881-2000 by a hybrid cou\pled model - (I): SST Assimilation with Ensemble Kalman Filter . Climate Dynamics, DOI 10.1007/s00382-008-0399-1.

Deng, Z. and Y. Tang, 2008: The retrospective prediction of ENSO from 1881-2000 by a hybrid coupled model - (II) Interdecadal and decadal variations in predictability . Climate Dynamics, DOI 10.1007/s00382-008-0398-2.

Tang, Y., Z. Deng, X. Zhou, Y. Cheng and D. Chen, 2008: Interdecadal Variation of ENSO Predictability in Multiple Models . J. Climate (in press).


If you have any questions about the datasets, please send an email to Dr. Youmin Tang at ytang@unbc.ca. It will be appreciated if you can make an acknowledgment after using this dataset.