Satellite-based time-series of sea-surface temperature since 1981 for climate applications

Merchant, C. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4687-9850, Embury, O. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1661-7828, Bulgin, C. E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4368-7386, Block, T., Corlett, G. K., Fiedler, E., Good, S. A., Mittaz, J., Rayner, N. A., Berry, D., Eastwood, S., Taylor, M., Tsushima, Y., Waterfall, A., Wilson, R. and Donlon, C. (2019) Satellite-based time-series of sea-surface temperature since 1981 for climate applications. Scientific Data, 6. 223. ISSN 2052-4463 doi: 10.1038/s41597-019-0236-x

Abstract/Summary

A climate data record of global sea surface temperature (SST) spanning 1981–2016 has been developed from 4 × 10^12 satellite measurements of thermal infra-red radiance. The spatial area represented by pixel SST estimates is between 1 km^2 and 45 km^2. The mean density of good-quality observations is 13 km^−2 yr^−1. SST uncertainty is evaluated per datum, the median uncertainty for pixel SSTs being 0.18 K. Multi-annual observational stability relative to drifting buoy measurements is within 0.003 K yr^−1 of zero with high confidence, despite maximal independence from in situ SSTs over the latter two decades of the record. Data are provided at native resolution, gridded at 0.05° latitude-longitude resolution (individual sensors), and aggregated and gap-filled on a daily 0.05° grid. Skin SSTs, depth-adjusted SSTs de-aliased with respect to the diurnal cycle, and SST anomalies are provided. Target applications of the dataset include: climate and ocean model evaluation; quantification of marine change and variability (including marine heatwaves); climate and ocean-atmosphere processes; and specific applications in ocean ecology, oceanography and geophysics.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/86882
Identification Number/DOI	10.1038/s41597-019-0236-x
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	Nature Publishing Group
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