GLOBAL SST:
Global SST Analysis
Global SST Anomaly
N. AMERICAN REGION SST:
N American region SST Analysis
N American region SST Anomaly
N. ATLANTIC SST:
N Atlantic SST Analysis
N Atlantic SST Anomaly
N.E. PACIFIC SST:
NE Pacific SST Analysis
NE Pacific SST Anomaly
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New high-resolution product available: To see the Real-Time Global, SST High-Resolution (RTG_SST_HR) analysis go to http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/sst/ophi
NOTE for frequent visitors: Go to Changes to the RTG_SST analysis for
information on changes in the operational run-time and the data-ingest window.
A daily, high-resolution, real-time, global, sea surface temperature (RTG_SST) analysis has been
developed at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/Marine Modeling and Analysis Branch (NCEP / MMAB).
The analysis was implemented in the NCEP production suite 30 January 2001, and provides the daily
ocean surface temperatures for the Meso-Eta model.
The daily sea surface temperature product is produced on a half-degree (latitude, longitude) grid,
with a two-dimensional variational interpolation analysis of the most recent 24-hours buoy and ship data,
satellite-retrieved SST data, and SST's derived from satellite-observed sea-ice coverage. The
algorithm employs the following data-handling and analysis techniques:
Satellite retrieved SST values are averaged within 0.5 deg. grid boxes
with day and night 'superobs' created separately for each satellite;
Bias calculation and removal, for satellite retrieved SST, is the technique
employed in the 7-day Reynolds-Smith climatological analysis;
Currently, the satellite SST retrievals are the Navy's SEATEMP retrievals from NOAA-17 AVHRR data;
SST reports from individual ships and buoys are separately averaged within
grid boxes;
The first-guess is the prior (un-smoothed) analysis with one-day's climate
adjustment added;
Late-arriving data which did not make it into the previous SST analysis
are accepted if they are less than 36 hours old;
Surface temperature is calculated for water where the ice cover exceeds
50%, using salinity climatology in Millero's formula for the freezing point
of salt water:
t(S) = -0.0575 S + 0.0017 S3/2 - 0.0002 S2,
with S in psu.
An inhomogeneous correlation-scale-parameter l, for the
correlation function: exp(-d2/l2) ,
is calculated from a climatological temperature gradient, as
l = min ( 450 , max( 2.25 / |grad T| , 100 )),
with d and l in kilometers. "grad T" is in deg. C / km
Evaluations of the analysis products have shown it to produce realistically tight gradients in the
Gulf Stream regions of the Atlantic and the Kuroshio region of the Pacific, and to be in close
agreement with SST reports from moored buoys in both oceans. Also, it has been shown to
properly depict the wintertime colder shelf water -- a feature critical in getting an accurate
model prediction for coastal winter storms.
The evaluation of the RTG_SST analysis is available by clicking the link to the RTG_SST Verification page.
GRIB files for the global SST product are available at the following FTP sites:
ftp://ftpprd.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/data/nccf/com/gfs/prod (most recent day)
Inspect subdirectories of the form "sst.YYYYMMDD",
where "YYYYMMDD" represents an 8-character date string, e.g., "20020717".
The RTG_SST analysis is contained in the file "sst2dvar_grb_0.5".
ftp://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/sst (2-7 days ago)
ftp://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/history/sst (fields from two days ago back to Feb. 11, 2001)
When using these last two links, look for files of the form "rtg_sst_grb_0.5.YYYYMMDD"
where "YYYYMMDD" represents an 8-character date string, e.g., "20020717".
For information on reading and unpacking GRIB files, go to the MMAB Tools page
The RTG_SST_HR analysis is done over all ocean areas, the Great Lakes, and
any other inland bodies of water resolved by the land-sea mask.
There is no analysis over land. The land values are filled by a Cressman
interpolation to produce a complete grid for possible interpolation to
other grids. The ocean and land areas are defined by a land sea mask.
This data set is an ASCII file, ls.dat, which may be found at the FTP site:
ftp://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/history/sst/lsmask
The spatial grid is defined identically to the grid for the
SST arrays, with indices starting just east of the Greenwich Meridian and near
the South Pole. The values in ls.dat are set to 0 over the ocean and 3 over
land. It can be read by the following Fortran code:
DIMENSION LS(720,360)
OPEN (11,FILE='ls.dat')
C
C Read in land sea tags (0 for ocean; 3 for land)
C
READ (11,'(80I1)') LS
STOP
END
For additional information about data-management and analysis techniques, contact
Robert.Grumbine@noaa.gov.
For information about the run cycle and digital data format, contact
Bert.Katz@noaa.gov.
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