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Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature (ERSST.v3)

ERSST Annual Anomaly
click on image for detail

ERSST.v3 is the newest version. It will replace ERSST.v2. ERSST.v3 is updated on the third day of each month.
The anomalies are computed with respect to a 1971-2000 month climatology. (Xue, Y., et.al. 2003).

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back to ERSST options Analysis Description

The extended reconstructed sea surface temperature (ERSST) was constructed using the most recently available International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS) SST data and improved statistical methods that allow stable reconstruction using sparse data. This monthly analysis begins January 1854, but because of sparse data the analyzed signal is heavily damped before 1880. Afterwards the strength of the signal is more consistent over time. The ERSST analysis will be updated as new data become available.

Currently, ERSST version 2 (ERSST.v2) and version 3 (ERSST.v3) are available. ERSST.v3 is an improved extended reconstruction over version 2. Most of the improvements are justified by testing with simulated data. The major differences are caused by the improved low-frequency (LF) tuning of ERSST.v3 which reduces the SST anomaly damping before 1930 using the optimized parameters. In the ERSST version 3 on this web page we have removed satellite data from ERSST product. For more information about the differences between ERSST.v3 and ERSST.v2 please read Summary of Recent Changes in the Land-Ocean Temperature Analyses.

back to ERSST options Gridded Data


Monthly ASCII data are available via Monthly ERSST and error data. See also readme file
Monthly ERSST NetCDF data are available via Monthly NetCDF ERSST.

You can make your own plots through the NCDC NOMADS Meteorological Data Server
Instructions to make maps
Instructions to make time series

LAS server is unavailable temporally. Please check back later!

You can now plot and extract the data using the LAS server. http://nomads.ncdc.noaa.gov/las/servlets/dataset
go to Smith-Reynolds Sea Surface Temperatures
then Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperatures.
There are several options in LAS. For example "xy (lat/lon) slice" gives spatial gridded or plotted values at a specified time, "t-line" gives a time series at a spatial point, and "xyt volume" combines xy (lat/lon) slice and t-line. You can plot or extract the temperatures for a space and time range.

back to ERSST optionsAscii Time seriers Tables


Monthly and annual land-ocean temperature time series are available from 1880 to present for several zonal bands and 2 special regions via ftp://eclipse.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/ersstv3b/pdo.

back to ERSST options References


ERSST.v1
Smith, T.M., and R.W. Reynolds, 2003: Extended Reconstruction of Global Sea Surface Temperatures Based on COADS Data (1854-1997). Journal of Climate, 16, 1495-1510.
ERSST.v2
Smith, T.M., and R.W. Reynolds, 2004: Improved Extended Reconstruction of SST (1854-1997). Journal of Climate, 17, 2466-2477.
ERSST.v3
Smith, T.M., R.W. Reynolds, Thomas C. Peterson, and Jay Lawrimore, 2008: Improvements to NOAA's Historical Merged Land-Ocean Surface Temperature Analysis (1880-2006). Journal of Climate,21, 2283-2296.
Xue, Y., T. M. Smith, and R. W. Reynolds, 2003: Interdecadal changes of 30-yr SST normals during 1871-2000. J. Climate, 16, 1601-1612.

back to ERSST options Contact Information

Dick Reynolds
Richard.W.Reynolds@noaa.gov

Tom Smith
Tom.Smith@noaa.gov

Chunying Liu
Chunying.Liu@noaa.gov

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NOAA NCDC / Satellite Data / SST / Help