Regular Monthly Mean Temperatures of Earth's Oceans from Satellites

Abstract

Comparisons of satellite-derived monthly mean sea surface temperature anomalies with National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) ship-derived monthly mean sea surface temperature anomalies over the North Pacific Ocean reveal some encouraging results. Although still far from perfect, correlation coefficients for linear fits of 0.34, 0.49, 0.50, and 0.55 are observed for the winter months of November 1977, December 1977, January 1978, and February 1978, respectively. The standard error of estimate remained close to ±0.6°C and the satellite-ship temperature difference between the overall monthly mean anomaly vacillated between +0.31°C (December 1977) and ?0.30°C (February 1978). Several other comparisons are presented. If the encouraging results of this study can be improved using improved sensor systems on the NOAA satellites, in addition to incorporating improved processing procedures, it would seem that we are now on the threshold of a more complete Earth monitoring system for at least one aspect of global climate?variability of sea surface temperature distributions.