NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)
Global ocean heat content basin time series
Ocean heat content anomaly in units of 10^22 joules (1 unit = 10 zettajoules), with standard errors, for the 0-700 m and 0-2000 m layers of the World Ocean and its Atlantic, Pacific and Indian basins, from in situ ocean temperature profiles. Columns: year + 0.5 (or the middle of a five-year period), then World (or basin), Northern and Southern Hemisphere values, each with its standard error. Yearly 0-700 m values start in 1955, yearly 0-2000 m values in 2005; earlier 0-2000 m values exist only as five-year (pentadal) means from 1955-59. Values are anomalies from NCEI's long-term climatology, so they describe change, not total heat.
Numbers published from it
Licence and credit
- What the terms say
“In line with these policies, the CDR data sets are non-proprietary, publicly available, and no restrictions are placed upon their use.”
From the producer's terms, checked 2026-10-04; re-checked automatically every week.
- Credit we give
- NOAA NCEI Ocean Heat Content Climate Data Record (Levitus, Antonov, Boyer et al.), NCEI Accession 0164586, doi:10.7289/V53F4MVP, accessed {date_accessed}; Levitus et al. (2012), Geophys. Res. Lett. 39, L10603, doi:10.1029/2012GL051106.
- Copy of the raw file
- Allowed: we keep a public copy of every version we use.
- Cite as
- Levitus, Sydney; Antonov, John I.; Boyer, Tim P.; Baranova, Olga K.; García, Hernán E.; Locarnini, Ricardo A.; Mishonov, Alexey V.; Reagan, James R.; Seidov, Dan; Yarosh, Evgeney; Zweng, Melissa M. (2017). NCEI ocean heat content, temperature anomalies, salinity anomalies, thermosteric sea level anomalies, halosteric sea level anomalies, and total steric sea level anomalies from 1955 to present calculated from in situ oceanographic subsurface profile data (NCEI Accession 0164586). Global Ocean Heat and Salt Content - Seasonal, Yearly, and Pentadal Fields. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.7289/v53f4mvp. Accessed {date_accessed}. Levitus, S., J. I. Antonov, T. P. Boyer, O. K. Baranova, H. E. Garcia, R. A. Locarnini, A.V. Mishonov, J. R. Reagan, D. Seidov, E. S. Yarosh, M. M. Zweng, 2012: World Ocean heat content and thermosteric sea level change (0-2000 m) 1955-2010. Geophys. Res. Lett. , 39, L10603, doi:10.1029/2012GL051106.
Files
World Ocean 0-700 m heat content anomaly, yearly from 1955 (10^22 J), fixed-width columns YEAR WO WOse NH NHse SH SHse (year + 0.5; World, Northern and Southern Hemisphere values with standard errors).
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/woa/DATA_ANALYSIS/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/DATA/basin/yearly/h22-w0-700m.datWorld Ocean 0-2000 m heat content anomaly, yearly from 2005 (10^22 J), same column layout.
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/woa/DATA_ANALYSIS/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/DATA/basin/yearly/h22-w0-2000m.datWorld Ocean 0-700 m heat content anomaly as five-year means from 1955-59 (first column is the middle year, e.g. 1957.5), same column layout.
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/woa/DATA_ANALYSIS/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/DATA/basin/pentad/pent_h22-w0-700m.datWorld Ocean 0-2000 m heat content anomaly as five-year means from 1955-59, the only 0-2000 m values before 2005.
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/woa/DATA_ANALYSIS/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/DATA/basin/pentad/pent_h22-w0-2000m.datAtlantic Ocean 0-2000 m heat content anomaly, yearly from 2005 (10^22 J); columns YEAR AO AOse NA NAse SA SAse (basin, then its northern and southern halves, each with a standard error).
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/woa/DATA_ANALYSIS/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/DATA/basin/yearly/h22-a0-2000m.datPacific Ocean 0-2000 m heat content anomaly, yearly from 2005 (10^22 J); columns YEAR PO POse NP NPse SP SPse (basin, then its northern and southern halves, each with a standard error).
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/woa/DATA_ANALYSIS/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/DATA/basin/yearly/h22-p0-2000m.datIndian Ocean 0-2000 m heat content anomaly, yearly from 2005 (10^22 J); columns YEAR IO IOse NI NIse SI SIse (basin, then its northern and southern halves, each with a standard error).
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/woa/DATA_ANALYSIS/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/DATA/basin/yearly/h22-i0-2000m.dat
Status
- Programme
- Updated quarterly: the yearly and pentadal files were last revised on 6 July 2026 (adding 2025), and the 3-month files run to January-March 2026. The FY2027 US budget request (April 2026) proposes cutting NCEI by $17.8 million, keeping core archive functions while reducing "engagement services, tailored products".
- Updates
- Quarterly (yearly values once a year; 2025 was added in July 2026)
- Last check
- Unchanged since the last fetch (2026-10-05T11:04:21Z)