Modern Average Global Sea-Surface Temperature

The purpose of this data set is to provide paleoclimate researchers with a tool
for estimating the average seasonal variation in sea-surface temperature (SST)
throughout the modern world ocean and for estimating the modern monthly and
weekly sea-surface temperature at any given oceanic location. It is expected
that these data will be compared with temperature estimates derived from
geological proxy measures such as faunal census analyses and stable isotopic
analyses. The results can then be used to constrain general circulation models
of climate change.

The data contained in this data set are derived from the NOAA Advanced Very
High Resolution Radiometer Multichannel Sea Surface Temperature data (AVHRR
MCSST), which are obtainable from the Distributed Active Archive Center at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. The JPL tapes contain
weekly images of SST from October 1981 through December 1990 in nine regions of
the world ocean: North Atlantic, Eastern North Atlantic, South Atlantic,
Agulhas, Indian, Southeast Pacific, Southwest Pacific, Northeast Pacific, and
Northwest Pacific.

This data set represents the results of calculations carried out on the NOAA
data and also contains the source code of the programs that made the
calculations. The objective was to derive the average sea-surface temperature
of each month and week throughout the whole 10-year series, meaning, for
example, that data from January of each year would be averaged together. The
result is 12 monthly and 52 weekly images for each of the oceanic regions.
Averaging the images in this way tends to reduce the number of grid cells that
lack valid data and to suppress interannual variability.

As ancillary data, the ETOPO5 global gridded elevation and bathymetry data
(Edwards, 1989) were interpolated to the resolution of the SST data; the
interpolated topographic data are included.

The images are provided in three formats: a modified form of run-length
encoding (MRLE), Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), and Macintosh PICT format.

Also included in the data set are programs that can retrieve seasonal
temperature profiles at user-specified locations and that can decompress the
data files. These nongraphical SST retrieval programs are provided in versions
for UNIX, MS-DOS, and Macintosh computers. Graphical browse utilities are
included for users of UNIX with the X Window System, 80386- based PC's, and
Macintosh computers.