These SST datasets are prepared at NCEP and NCDC by Dick Reynolds, Diane Stokes, and Tom Smith.

The monthly optimum interpolation (OI) fields are derived by a linear interpolation of the weekly OI fields to daily fields then averaging the daily values over a month. The monthly fields are in the same format and spatial resolution as the weekly fields.

The optimum interpolation (OI) sea surface temperature (SST) analysis is produced weekly on a one-degree grid. The analysis uses in situ and satellite SST's plus SST's simulated by sea-ice cover. Before the analysis is computed, the satellite data is adjusted for biases using the method of Reynolds (1988) and Reynolds and Marsico (1993). A description of the OI analysis can be found in Reynolds and Smith (1994).

The bias correction does add a small amount of noise in time to the weekly analysis. Most of the noise can be eliminated by using a 1/4-1/2-1/4 binomial filter in time. It is not necessary to filter the monthly analysis. (It was previously recommended (by CDC) that the binomial filter always be applied to the data fields before use. Reynolds believes that the filter is useful in some areas but not necessary in others.) An improved sea ice to SST conversion algorithm and a modestly improved bias correction has been completed in the OI version 2 (OI.v2).

For a complete description of the data as given by the providers and references for the papers cited in the description please see their information file.

PLEASE NOTE: The dates used in the netCDF files are the dates of the beginning of the 7-day average period. For the more recent period, 1990-present, the weeks are defined to be centered on Wednesday. During the period 1981-1989, the weeks are centered on Sunday.

This summary was taken from NCAR.

Reynolds, R.W., 1993: Impact of Mount Pinatubo aerosols on satellite-derived sea surface temperatures. J. Climate, 6, 768-774.

Reynolds, R. W. and D. C. Marsico, 1993: An improved real-time global sea surface temperature analysis. J. Climate, 6, 114-119.

Reynolds, R. W. and T. M. Smith, 1994: Improved global sea surface temperature analyses. J. Climate, 7, 929-948.

T. M. Smith and Reynolds, R. W., 1998: A high-resolution global sea surface temperature climatology for the 1961-90 base period. J. Climate, 11, 3320-3323.

Click on the links below to view data coverage maps for a particular time period. Percentage of non-missing data per time period is plotted. Coverage is consistent throughout the period of record.

(11/1981-12/2001)

Updated: 10/17/03
Maintained by asphilli@ucar.edu