Sensitivities of Monthly Sea Level Along the U.S. Gulf Coast to Surface Ocean Forcing: 1-12 Month Lead Times, Seasonally-Varying

This dataset consists of adjoint (gradient) sensitivities of sea surface height at several locations in the Gulf of Mexico, to surface momentum, heat, and freshwater fluxes in the global oceans. The sensitivities indicate the linearly-approximated dependence of sea surface height on a flux at a particular model grid cell (location) and lead time. These sensitivities were computed using the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) version 4 state estimate, run in adjoint mode to determine sensitivities to monthly sea level at lead times up to 12 months. The sensitivities were computed for sea level for each month in 2004 (Jan, Feb, Mar, etc.), to represent seasonal changes in sea level causality. When using these data, please cite as follows: Wang, O. (2025). ECCO adjoint sensitivities and ocean surface fluxes for adjoint convolution of Gulf Coast sea level variations [Dataset]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15811256. And also consider citing the following publication for more detail on dataset generation and applications: Delman, A., Wang, O., & Lee, T. (2026). Forcing of subannual‐to‐decadal sea level variability and the recent rapid rise along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 131, e2025JC023189. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JC023189.