Southwest North Atlantic Regional Climatology (NCEI Accession 0201696)

The Southwest North Atlantic (SWNA) Regional Climatology(RC) is a collection of high-resolution quality-controlled temperature and salinity fields on standard depth levels from the sea surface to 4,900 m depth. This RC based on temperature and salinity observations from the 2018 release of the World Ocean Database. The coverage includes the years 1955 to 2017, or roughly six decades; with annual, seasonal, and monthly time resolutions for each of the six decades. The SWNA RC can be employed to assess ocean climate change over the 1955-2017 time period and utilized in many climate studies, environmental research projects, and related applications.

The SWNA plays an important role in long-term earth and ocean climate change and is a resource-rich coastal zone with abundant fisheries and other material resources. This region is adjacent to the Northwest Atlantic area covered by the NCEI Northwest Atlantic (NWA) regional climatology (RC). In conjuncture with NWA RC, the SWNA RC provides complete coverage of the Gulf Stream system, which is the critical element of northward heat transport and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.