A high-resolution global sea surface temperature climatology

Abstract

In response to the development of a new higher-resolution sea surface temperature (SST) analysis at the National Meteorological Center (NMC), a new monthly 1° global sea surface temperature climatology was constructed from two intermediate climatologies: the 2° SST climatology presently used at NMC and a 1° SST climatology derived from the new analysis. The 2° SST climatology used a 30-yr 1950-1979 base period supplemented by four years (1982-1985) of satellite SST retrievals. The 1° SST climatology was based on monthly analyses using in situ SST data, satellite SST retrievals, and sea-ice coverage data over a 12-yr period (1982-1993). The use of 12 years of satellite SST retrievals makes this new climatology useful for many additional purposes because its effective resolution actually approaches 1° everywhere over the global ocean and because the mean SST values are more accurate south of 40°S than climatologies without these data. -from Authors