Assessing the impact of satellite‐based observations in sea surface temperature trends Geophysical Research Letters

Global trends of sea surface temperature (SST) are assessed for the existing and new experimental SST analyses that incorporate advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) observations from NOAA polar-orbiting satellites. These analyses show that globally and annually averaged SST trends over the 21st century (2000–2015) are similar to the trends for the full satellite record period (1982–2015), regardless of whether AVHRR data are included in the analyses. It is shown that appropriate bias correction is an important step to remove discontinuities of AVHRR data for consistent time series and trend analysis.