Data from: A global daily mesoscale ocean eddy dataset from satellite altimetry

Mesoscale ocean eddies are ubiquitous coherent rotating structures of water with radial scales on the order of 100 kilometers. Eddies play a key role in the transport and mixing of momentum and tracers across the World Ocean. We present a global daily mesoscale ocean eddy dataset that contains ~45 million mesoscale features and 3.3 million eddy trajectories that persist at least two days as identified in the AVISO dataset over a period of 1993–2014. This dataset, along with the open-source eddy identification software, extract eddies with any parameters (minimum size, lifetime, etc.), to study global eddy properties and dynamics, and to empirically estimate the impact eddies have on mass or heat transport. Furthermore, our open-source software may be used to identify mesoscale features in model simulations and compare them to observed features. Finally, this dataset can be used to study the interaction between mesoscale ocean eddies and other components of the Earth System.中尺度海洋涡旋是全球普遍存在的具有相干旋转特性的水体结构，其径向尺度约为100千米。涡旋在全球大洋的动量与示踪物输运及混合过程中发挥着关键作用。本研究构建了一套全球逐日中尺度海洋涡旋数据集，涵盖1993年至2014年间基于AVISO数据集识别出的约4500万个中尺度海洋特征，以及330万个持续时长至少两天的涡旋轨迹。本数据集搭配开源涡旋识别软件，可支持提取任意参数（如最小尺度、生命周期等）下的涡旋，用于研究全球涡旋的特性与动力学过程，并实证估算涡旋对物质或热输运的影响。此外，本研究提供的开源软件还可用于识别模式模拟中的中尺度海洋特征，并将其与观测得到的特征进行对比。最后，本数据集还可用于探究中尺度海洋涡旋与地球系统其他组分之间的相互作用。