Analysis of variability and long-term trends of sea surface temperature over the China Seas derived from a newly merged regional data set

Abstract

CR Climate Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials CR 73:217-231 (2017) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01471 Analysis of variability and long-term trends of sea surface temperature over the China Seas derived from a newly merged regional data set Yan Li2, Lin Mu1,*, Yulong Liu2, Guosong Wang2, Dongsheng Zhang2, Huan Li2, Xue Han3 1China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, PR China 2National Marine Data and Information Service, Tianjin 300171, PR China 3National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center, Beijing 100081, PR China *Corresponding author: moulin1977@hotmail.com ABSTRACT: A sea surface temperature (SST) data set was recently reconstructed for the China Seas and their adjacent waters (100-150°E, 0-50°N). Hereafter, we refer to this new regional data set as SST-CS. SST-CS has a monthly temporal resolution and a spatial resolution of 1° latitude by 1° longitude for the period from January 1960 to December 2012. This data set is merged by SST observations from the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) of China and the SST observations from Release 2.5 of the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS R2.5) from 1960-2012. SST-CS has improved the data coverage over the China Seas (105-130°E, 15-45°N) compared with ICOADS R2.5. Results show that SST-CS is more consistent with SST observations over the China Seas than COBE SST2 and HadISST1, especially in the offshore areas, and can better capture the temporal and spatial variability of SST in the China Seas. The warming rate of the annual mean SST derived from SST-CS is about 0.153°C every 10 yr for the past 53 yr over the China Seas. Regarding seasonal variation, the most significant warming trend appears in winter, about 0.181°C per 10 yr, and the lowest warming trend occurs in summer (0.102°C per 10 yr). SST-CS can provide a more suitable and available data source for climatic and oceanographic studies in the China Seas and their adjacent waters. KEY WORDS: Sea surface temperature · China Seas · Data set · Observation · Climate change Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Li Y, Mu L, Liu Y, Wang G, Zhang D, Li H, Han X (2017) Analysis of variability and long-term trends of sea surface temperature over the China Seas derived from a newly merged regional data set. Clim Res 73:217-231. https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01471 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in CR Vol. 73, No. 3. Online publication date: August 30, 2017 Print ISSN: 0936-577X; Online ISSN: 1616-1572 Copyright © 2017 Inter-Research.