This page shows daily sea surface temperature estimates from NOAA OISST v2.1 –
View details.
Click data point on chart to update map below.
Page Overview & Data Sources
This page provides time series and map visualizations of daily mean
Sea Surface Temperature (SST) from
NOAA Optimum Interpolation SST (OISST) version 2.1. OISST is a 0.25°x0.25°
gridded dataset that provides estimates of temperature based on a blend of satellite,
ship, and buoy observations. The datset spans 1 September 1981 to present with a 1 to
2-day lag from the current day. Data are preliminary
for about two weeks until a finalized product is posted by NOAA. This status is
identified on the maps by "preliminary" appearing in the title, and applies to the
time series as well. Learn more about OISST, including strengths and limitations,
from the
NCAR Climate Data Guide.
NOTE: The daily temperatures displayed
here are estimates specific to OISST, and any apparent record high or low values in
OISST should be considered with caution and evaluated against other datasets. For
long-term global climate time series, refer to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental
Information (NCEI)
Climate at a Glance with monthly means of surface temperature
observations 1850 to present.
Time series and maps: The time series chart displays area-weighted means for the
selected domain. For example, if World 60S-60N is selected, then each daily SST
value on the chart represents the average of all ocean gridcells between 60°S and 60°N
across all longitudes, and accounts for the convergence of longitudes at the poles.
World (60°S–60°N, 0–360°E)
North Atlantic (0–60°N, 0–80°W)
Gulf of Maine (42–45°N, 66–71°W)
*MDR = Main Development Region
Upon clicking a data point in the chart, a tooltip will display the estimated daily
temperature as well as temperature anomalies relative to both 1982–2010 and
1991–2020 climatological means. The period 1991–2020 is the current 30-year
climate normal recognized by NOAA and the World Meteorological Organization, and the
anomaly maps use this most recent reference period. The daily climatologies are calculated
from the OISST dataset.
Clicking a data point on the time series chart also updates the map. The toggle button
at the lower-left of the map can be used to switch the display between temperature and
temperature anomaly. OISST temperature estimates are poorly constrained over ice-covered
areas in the high latitudes, therefore a sea ice mask is applied to both the SST and SST
anomaly maps for gridcells where ice concentration is >= 50%. Areas of ice cover are
determined using the ice concentration variable in the OISST dataset.
NCAR Command Language is used
for data processing and map generation. The interactive time series chart is made using
HighCharts. OISST data grids
are downloaded from NCEI
here.
