Japanese Reanalysis for Three Quarters of a Century with COBE-SST2

The Japan Meteorological Agency produced a sub-product of the Japanese Reanalysis for Three Quarters of a Century (JRA-3Q) using the sea surface temperature (SST) from the Centennial In Situ Observation-based Estimates of the Variability of SSTs and Marine Meteorological Variables Version 2 (COBE-SST2) as the lower boundary condition for the period from June 1985 to December 1990. In JRA-3Q, the SST specified as the lower boundary condition is COBE-SST2 with a resolution of 1° based on in situ observations until May 1985 and the Merged Satellite and In-Situ Data Global Daily Sea Surface Temperature (MGDSST) with a resolution of 0.25° based on satellite observations since June 1985. This sub-product, called JRA-3Q with COBE-SST2 (JRA-3Q-COBE), was produced in order to enable evaluation of changes in product characteristics following the switch from COBE-SST2 to MGDSST.