A high-resolution boundary current product from Gridded Observations of eXpendable BathyThermograph (XBT) transects
The Ship Of Opportunity Expendable BathyThermograph (SOOP-XBT) Network has been measuring upper ocean temperature aboard volunteer vessels over multiple decades in key locations of the global ocean. Through international collaboration, these data are systematically collected, quality-controlled and made available to the scientific and operational communities. The network's strengths: its low cost, high spatial resolution, and long-term repeatability, have made it a key asset for advancing ocean state estimation and climate studies. Here, we introduce a synthesis of formatted XBT data from selected transects across the global ocean, and provide a high-quality gridded product of temperature and derived salinity and absolute geostrophic velocity across five major boundary currents: the Gulf Stream, Kuroshio, East Australian Current, Brazil Current and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The Gridded Observations of XBT transects (GOXBT) product offers a unique temporal coverage and spatial resolution, providing a critical resource for ocean model and reanalysis validation, and supporting future studies on the variability and dynamics of major ocean currents.
Authors
- Jared Brzenski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3178-5352)
- Claudia Fratianni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4983-4255)
- Yuri Cotroneo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0099-0142)
- Zhetao Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4342-3356)
- Marlos Góes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5874-8079)
- Mauro Cirano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0789-1120)
- Giuseppe Aulicino (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6406-8715)
- Antonino Ian Ferola (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3953-415X)
- Justine Parks
- Gaël Forget (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4234-056X)
- Janet Sprintall
- Shenfu Dong
- Rebecca Cowley
- Werner Barros
- Ken Ridgway
- Tayanne Ferreira
Institutions
- Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (BR)
- CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere (AU)
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US)
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US)
- Parthenope University of Naples (IT)
- NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratories (US)
- Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (IT)
- Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (FR)
- European Space Research Institute (IT)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Scientific Data
- Published
- 2026-03-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06883-3
- Primary Topic
- Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação
- Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Program
- NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory