AVISO Geostrophic Currents

AVISO geostrophic current data

Absolute geostrophic velocity vector components computed from absolute topography.

Metadata: http://www.aviso.oceanobs.com/fileadmin/documents/data/tools/hdbk_duacs.pdf (PDF)
Spatial Resolution: 0.33 degrees (~30km)
Extent: Global
Temporal Resolution: Daily
Date Range: 10/1992 - current
Format(s): NetCDF
Access Methods: HTTP/FTP, OpenDAP, LAS
Data Access: http://www.aviso.oceanobs.com/en/data/products/sea-surface-height-products/global/madt/index.html#c5132
CoML visualization guidance: TBD

Use Example

In this example, you will download GIS-compatible raster images for an Aviso geostrophic currents product. These instructions assume local access to ESRI's ArcGIS software - access to ArcGIS via remote desktop is also available. These instruction require the Marine Geospatial Ecology Tools (MGET) for ArcGIS.

In the ArcGIS ArcToolbox window, go to Marine Geospatial Ecology Tools -> Data Products -> Aviso --> Geostrophic Currents Products.
Open the tool named Create Rasters for Aviso Geostrophic Currents Product.
Enter values for the Aviso Username and Aviso Password parameters. At the time of this writing, you must enter "aviso-users" and "grid2010" as the username and password, without quotation marks. Even if you obtained an account from Aviso for accessing their data, that account would not work here. It only worked on the Aviso FTP server; the MGET tool uses the Aviso OPeNDAP server, which had not been integrated with Aviso's security system yet.
Choose an Aviso Geostrophic Currents Product from the drop-down list.
Choose a Vector Component from the drop-down list. The u component represents the velocity in the east/west direction in cm/s (east is positive). The v component represents velocity in the north/south direction (north is positive). To obtain a complete vector, you will need to run the tool twice, once for the u and once for the v.
For the Output Workspace, select a file system directory to receive the rasters.
Under the Spatiotemporal Extent options, specify a Start Date and End Date for a small range of time such as one month. If you do not specify these, the tool will download the entire Aviso dataset, which could take a long time.
Run the tool.