Underwater sound speed and sound speed error simulations for present (2006-2016) and future (2090-2100) decades under RCP8.5 climate scenario (NCEI Accession 0244993)

This dataset contains underwater sound velocity and its associated error computed for two decades, 2006-2016 and 2090-2100, representative of present and future conditions. Sound speed has been calculated as a function of depth, temperature and salinity using the MacKenzie formula. The calculation of sound speed has been performed separately for all vertical levels contained in the input datasets, i.e., the Community Earth System Model (CESM) version 1 for the “business-as-usual” climate change scenario (RCP8.5) within the CESM Large Ensemble project (Kay et al., 2015) (called 'LENS' following Affatati et al., accepted). The first member of a 40-member ensemble has been considered.

Sound speed and sound speed error averages have been computed for each month, in order to observe seasonal patterns. Result is a global-scale, three-dimensional dataset of sound speed and sound speed error for each of the considered input datasets. Data are provided in netCDF format and separately for each monthly mean. For example, SS_pres_01.nc is the Sound speed file containing the month average for January (01) in the decade 2006-2016. Similarly, SS_fut_01.nc is the Sound speed file containing the month average for January (01) in the decade 2090-2100.