Data Access


The Southwest Atlantic MOC project serves the following data products produced from AOML Pressure-equipped Inverted Echo Sounder (PIES) moorings:

  • PIES Site A, 34°30'S 051°30'W
  • PIES Site B, 34°30'S 049°30'W
  • PIES Site C, 34°30'S 047°30'W
  • PIES Site D, 34°30'S 044°30'W

Acoustic Travel Time and Bottom Pressure Anomaly Time-Series:

Round-trip acoustic travel time and bottom pressure time-series records are available for each of the four AOML PIES sites (A-D) beginning in 2009.

Near-Bottom Current Velocity Time-Series from Site B (2009-2010):

Near-bottom current velocities are available from May 2009 through March 2010 at Site B, which was also equipped with a current meter (CPIES) during this period. The current meter was located approximately 50 meters above the bottom (the 2009-2010 Site B mooring was located in 3514 meters of water).

Estimated Temperature and Salinity Profile Time-Series:

Time-series of estimated temperature and salinity profiles for AOML PIES Sites A-D have been produced using IES acoustic travel times in conjunction with regional historical hydrographic data (assembled into a GEM field).

ASCII files may be downloaded with the profile data configured in either columns or rows. The data files served below are "flat" files, however due to their extreme width/length, some text editors may wrap the data string when displaying the file contents.
Site: Estimated Parameter: Data Orientation:

Internal Temperature Record Time-Series:

Meinen et al. (2020) presents approximately ten-year-long records of temperature from sensors internal to the PIES pressure sensors from the SAM array. These temperature time-series can be downloaded below.

MOC estimates from SAM and partner arrays:

Meinen et al. (2018) estimated the daily MOC upper limb transport using as the primary data sets the round-trip acoustic travel time and bottom pressure measurements of a pair of pressure-equipped inverted echo sounders (PIES)/current-and-pressure-equipped inverted echo sounders (CPIES) near the 1300 dbar isobath on either flank of the South Atlantic at 34.5degS, together with a satellite wind product and the output from a numerical model. The details of the calculations can be found in the linked paper - here the daily measurements are made available in ASCII formatted files.

If you use these data sets listed above, please make sure to cite the Meinen et al. (2018) publication as it contains the appropriate credit for the data producers in the Acknowledgements.

Meinen et al. (2013) published an earlier version of the MOC estimates using data from 2009-2010.
Those MOC estimates can be downloaded below.

MHT estimates from SAM and partner arrays:

Kersalé et al. (2021) extends the earlier analysis of Meinen et al. (2018) and Kersalé et al. (2020) to resolve for the full‐depth, daily measurements of the Meridional Heat Transport (MHT) in the South Atlantic at 34.5°S. This study used the same nine pressure-equipped inverted echo sounder (PIES)/current-and-pressure-equipped inverted echo sounder (CPIES) moorings than Kersalé et al. (2020) (detailed below). The details of the MHT calculations can be found in Kersalé et al. (2021). Here the daily MHT and the seasonal cycles/climatologies are provided. Data are made available in plain ASCII formatted files.

If you use these data sets listed above, please make sure to cite the Kersalé et al. (2021) publication as it contains the appropriate credit for the data producers in the Acknowledgements.

Data Access via Project FTP Site:

The SAM time-series data products served above are also available at the project FTP site.
ftp://ftp.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/pub/SAM

In addition to SAM IES data provided by NOAA/AOML, our international partners are now publicly distributing relevant hydrographic data from our joint project cruises via the same FTP site.

How to Acknowledge/Cite SAM Project Data:

Data from the Southwest Atlantic MOC project are made freely available to the public. Project scientists would appreciate it if you added the following acknowledgment to any publications that use these data:

"Data from the Southwest Atlantic MOC project (SAM) are funded by the DOC-NOAA Climate Program Office - Ocean Observation and Monitoring Division and the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. These data are freely available via the http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/research/moc/samoc/sam/ web page."