An Upper Ocean Thermal Field Metrics Dataset

The upper ocean provides a source of thermal energy for tropical cyclone development and maintenance through a series of complex interactions. In this work, we develop a seventeen-year dataset of upper ocean thermal field metrics for use in tropical cyclone studies and development of tropical cyclone intensity prediction models. These metrics include the surface temperature, two different measures of vertically integrated heat content, and four different measures of vertically averaged temperature. Some metrics have been used to study upper-ocean energy response to tropical cyclone passage, while others have been employed to improve operational tropical cyclone intensity prediction models. The vertically integrated ocean heat content has been used to improve tropical cyclone intensity forecasts at U.S. tropical cyclone forecast centers and is an integral part of several operational intensity forecast models. A static 2005–2021 dataset that includes all twelve metrics described within is available on the Naval Research Laboratory web server, and a subset of six metrics have been produced in real-time at Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center and provided to the public via the GODAE server since 2021.