The variation of sea surface temperature in 1976 and 1977 1: The data analysis

Abstract

To study the spatial distribution of the sea surface temperature (SST) for the years of 1976 and 1977, ship and satellite data at 1° quadrangles were collected. Two points were investigated: (1) the difference of monthly mean SST data between the two sources, and (2) map analyses over the globe. The study shows that without satellite data, an adequate coverage of world ocean is not possible and that there is a large difference in values between the ship and satellite data. The standard deviation of the difference between the satellite and merchant ship SST data for monthly and 1° quadrangle mean was ±1.49°C, where the sampling errors were not subtracted. Using these data, analyses were created and compared with independent analyses. The comparisons included large‐scale analyses and two small‐scale analyses. Attention was focussed specially on (1) the utility of the satellite SST data and (2) the data quality control. The large‐scale analyses agreed well with the independent analyses. However, both of the small‐scale analyses did not compare well.