Modern Average Sea Surface Temperature

Satellite infrared raidiometrs measure the full spectrum of sun light radiated from the sea surface and convert this specturm (particularly the longer-wave length infared part) to an estimate of temperature. The wavelengths used in the calculations have be selected to correspond the peak of the earth's blackbody radiaton and pass through the atmosphere without dispersion (selective attenuation accirding to wavelength). The annual temperature then computed by weighing all of the daily measurements over a period of 12 months. The mean annual sea surface temperture as shown in the Earth Observer map averages the yearly compliations over a span of a decade to obtain a reference point to which future global change or past paleoclimate histories can be compared.

The compilation in our Mean Annual Temperature map has been used to compute the difference in temperature between the modern ocean and the past ice age ocean some 18,000 years ago.

Annual Mean Sea Surface Temperature (1982-1995) from National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center

Past 7 day animation of Sea Surface Temperature from The National Centre for Ocean Forecasting

Data Source:
National Oceanographic Data Center

Further Reading:

• Reynolds, R.W. and D.B. Chelton, Comparisons of daily sea surface temperature analyses for 2007-08, J. Climate, 23, 3545–3562, 2010
• Gentemann, C.L., P.J. Minnett, J. Sienkiewicz, M. DeMaria, J. Cummings, Y. Jin, J.D. Doyle, L. Gramer, C.N. Barron, K.S. Casey, and C.J. Donlon, MISST: The Multi-Sensor Improved Sea Surface Temperature Project, Oceanography, 22(2), 76-87, 2009
• Kara, A.B., C.N. Barron, and T. Boyer, Evaluations of SST climatologies in the tropical Pacific Ocean, J. Geophys. Res., 114, C02021, doi:10.1029/2008JC004909, 2009.
• Maturi, E., A. Harris, C. Merchant, J. Mittaz, B. Potash, W. Meng and J. Sapper, NOAA's Sea Surface Temperature Products From Operational Geostationary Satellites, Bull. Am. Met. Soc., 89(12), 1877-1888. DOI:10.1175/2008BAMS2528.1, 2008
• Kara, A.B. and C.N. Barron, Fine-resolution satellite-based daily sea surface temperatures over the global ocean, J. Geophys. Res., 112 , C05041, doi:10.1029/2006JC004021, 2007
• Reynolds, R.W., T.M. Smith, C. Liu, D.B. Chelton, K.S. Casey, M.G. Schlax, Daily High-Resolution-Blended Analyses for Sea Surface Temperature, J. Climate, 20, 5473–5496, 2007
• Barron, C.N. and A.B. Kara, Satellite-based daily SSTs over the global ocean, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L15603, doi:10.1029/2006GL026356, 2006
• Ward, B., Near Surface Ocean Temperature, J. Geophys. Res., 111, doi:10.1029/2004JC002689, 2006

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