Experimental SST Anomaly Charts

A Satellite-only climatology has been provided at 36 km resolution by Al Strong. The climatology is based on nighttime observations from 1984-1993, with SST observations from the years 1991 and 1992 omitted due to aerosol contamination from Mt. Pinatubo. EPS has interpolated these climatologies to 50 km resolution, and now produces an experimental SST anomaly field (SST - Climatology). The anomaly field is produced twice weekly as an updated nighttime-only 50 km SST analysis is produced.

The 'daily' Climatology used is an interpolation of the two monthly climatologies closest in time to the 50 km SST analysis date. Thus for the July 30 Anomaly Field, the July and August climatologies were used, and a linear interpolation performed to obtain a 'daily' climatology for July 30. This 'daily' climatology was subtracted from the operational 50 km SST analysis of July 30 to produce the SST anomaly chart labeled 7.30.1996.

Note that the satellite-only SST climatology is derived only from nighttime SST observations. In order to provide the most accurate anomaly field possible, EPS has recently developed a nighttime-only 50 km SST analysis to enable the best comparison between the satellite SST observations and the climatology. In the near future, we will discontinue the Daytime/Nighttime anomaly charts and post only the Nighttime anomaly charts.

The range of temperatures displayed is -5.0 to +5.0 K. Each color gradation on the colorbar is 0.5 K. Comments are provided in near real-time to highlight features of interest in the anomaly charts.

In addition, Dr. Strong has provided EPS with monthly SST anomalies using monthly mean satellite-only SST's and his computed climatology. These are available at full resolution.

Please let us know what you think about the quality of the images. Send your comments, suggestions, etc. to John Sapper. If there is sufficient interest, we will continue to produce these charts.

Last revised: May 14, 2001 (jw)