Updated on 20 Feb. 2025
Japan Meteorological Agency
Data on annual mean anomalies of global ocean heat content (OHC) are available for download.
Global OHC anomalies are calculated from monthly temperature analysis and monthly climatological salinity data.
Temperatures are analyzed objectively on monthly 1° grids for 26 levels at depths of 0 – 2000 m.
The analysis is based on in situ observations only.
The gridded OHC values are computed by vertically integrating the heat content for each level (0 – 2000 m). For more details, see the reference (Ishii et al., 2017).
Data are in ASCII format.
All values are stored as annual mean OHC anomalies from the 1991 – 2020 average in 1019 J.
Errors indicate one standard deviation.
Missing data are set to the value given in the header (-9.9999). The grids represent areas of 1°×1°.
The data array consists of 180 rows and 360 columns.
The cell in the first column of the first row shows the value for the grid box at (0.5°E, 89.5°N).
The cell in the second column of the first row shows the value for the grid box at (1.5°E, 89.5°N).
The cell in the 360th column of the 180th row shows the value for the grid box at (0.5°W, 89.5°S).
The first line of each record is a header indicating the relevant attribute. The header format is as follows:
# Year Month Day Row Column Missing Lon-Lat at (1,1) and Lon-Lat at (360,180) Unit /Sample/ # 1980 null null 180 360 Missing = -9.9999 (1, 1) = (0.5E, 89.5N) and (360,180) = (0.5W, 89.5S) Unit: 10**19J
The second and third columns (i.e., the month and day) in the header are "null."
ohcsample.ZIP - a sample Fortran90 program source file for reading data (179.5°E, 0.5°N) from specific years compressed in ZIP format.
Each decade is archived in one file.
All files are compressed in ZIP format, and all file sizes are less than around 1 MB.
| OHC | 1 standard deviation error | |
|---|---|---|
| 1955 – 1959 | ohc_1955_1959.ZIP | ohc_err_1955_1959.ZIP |
| 1960 – 1969 | ohc_1960_1969.ZIP | ohc_err_1960_1969.ZIP |
| 1970 – 1979 | ohc_1970_1979.ZIP | ohc_err_1970_1979.ZIP |
| 1980 – 1989 | ohc_1980_1989.ZIP | ohc_err_1980_1989.ZIP |
| 1990 – 1999 | ohc_1990_1999.ZIP | ohc_err_1990_1999.ZIP |
| 2000 – 2009 | ohc_2000_2009.ZIP | ohc_err_2000_2009.ZIP |
| 2010 – 2019 | ohc_2010_2019.ZIP | ohc_err_2010_2019.ZIP |
| 2020 – last | ohc_2020_last.ZIP | ohc_err_2020_last.ZIP |
The following citation should be included when these data are used:
Ishii, M., Y. Fukuda, H. Hirahara, S. Yasui, T. Suzuki, and K. Sato, 2017: Accuracy of Global Upper Ocean Heat Content Estimation Expected from Present Observational Data Sets. SOLA, Vol. 13, 163 – 167, https://doi.org/10.2151/sola.2017-030