Abstract
Numerical simulations of oceanic variations at submesoscale spatial scales are essential for understanding dynamic characteristics of the Northern South China Sea (NSCS). Currently, the spatial resolution and accuracy of available reanalysis and simulation datasets are still inadequate to comprehensively capture submesoscale processes, leading to an incomplete depiction of the region’s detailed dynamic characteristics. In this study, a regional oceanic simulation dataset at (1/90) ° × (1/90) ° spatial and daily temporal resolutions for the year 2019 is produced based on a non-hydrostatic ocean general circulation model (OGCM). Assessments from an idealized experiment suggest that non-hydrostatic calculations can improve the simulation accuracy of high-resolution OGCMs for small-scale oceanic features, such as internal tides or submesoscale phenomena. Comparisons with the observations demonstrate that simulations from the non-hydrostatic OGCM are generally more accurate than those from hydrostatic OGCM. Along with its good performance in simulating dynamic processes in the NSCS, this dataset can enhance understanding of the dynamical patterns and interactions among multi-scale processes, including large-scale circulation, mesoscale eddies, and submesoscale phenomena.
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Data availability
The dataset of model outputs is freely available without restriction from the Science Data Bank at https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.27570.
Code availability
The model code and data can be found on Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1368985774. An identical version of the model code and data is also available for download on GitHub at https://github.com/jumpen/Non-hydrostatic-MASNUM-Ocean-General-Circulation-Model-codes-and-results.
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Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (42425606), the Basic Scientific Fund for National Public Research Institute of China (Shu-Xingbei Young Talent Program 2023S01), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42106031), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFA1004403, 2022YFC3104803), the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. ZR202102240074), the Ocean Decade International Cooperation Center Scientific and Technological Cooperation Projects (GHKJ2024005), and China-Korea Joint Ocean Research Center (CN: PI-20240101, KR: 20220407).
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All authors contributed jointly to analyzing the model outputs and preparing the manuscript. Z.Z.: Data curation, numerical model construction, experiment design, visualization, writing original draft, and manuscript revision and editing. Z.S.: Conceptualization, supervision, formal analysis, manuscript review, and visualization. Q.S.: Data processing, formal analysis, manuscript review, and software development. L.S.: Data curation, methodology, and visualization. Y.Y.: Conceptualization, supervision, formal analysis, and manuscript review.
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Zhuang, Z., Song, Z., Shu, Q. et al. Submesoscale daily data from a non-hydrostatic OGCM at 1/90° resolution over Northern South China Sea in 2019. Sci Data (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06653-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06653-1


