Global eddy–profile database

Data-driven methods

Merging 4.2 million vertical profiles with 35 million altimetry-tracked eddy observations.

Satellite altimetry reveals ocean mesoscale eddies globally, but their vertical structure remains a computational challenge to study at scale. I combined the World Ocean Database with an altimetry-derived eddy atlas (META3.2 DT), using high-performance computing and parallel Python to match more than 4.2 million quality-controlled profiles to more than 35 million vortex observations.

The resulting dataset is open and cloud-native: it is distributed as an Icechunk repository, a versioned, transactional Zarr store that lets anyone open and subset the full database directly from cloud storage with xarray, without downloading files first. Optimizing this layout cut typical data-access times from minutes to seconds (see the Earthmover write-up). The code to reproduce and extend the matching is also available.

The database supports research on eddy vertical structure, heat, mass and nutrient transport, and water-mass subduction.