Hadley Centre SST data set (HadSST3)

NOTE: HadSST3 has been replaced by HadSST4 which can be obtained from the UK's Met Office

The Met Office Hadley Centre's sea surface temperature data set, HadSST3 is a monthly global field of SST on a 5° latitude by 5° longitude grid from 1850 to date. The data are neither interpolated nor variance adjusted.

The SST data are taken from the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set, ICOADS, from 1850 to 2006 and from the NCEP-GTS from 2007 to the present. HadSST3 is produced (a slightly more detailed description) by taking in-situ measurements of SST from ships and buoys, rejecting measurements that fail quality checks, converting the measurements to anomalies by subtracting climatological values from the measurements, and calculating a robust average of the resulting anomalies on a 5° by 5° degree monthly grid. After gridding the anomalies, bias adjustments are applied to reduce the effects of spurious trends caused by changes in SST measuring practices. The uncertainties due to under-sampling and measurement error have been calculated for the gridded monthly data as have the uncertainties on the bias adjustments following the procedures described in the paper. (Kennedy et al., 2011b/2011c).

The material may be downloaded to file or printer for the purposes of private study and scientific research. Any other proposed use of the material is subject to a copyright license available from the Met Office. Please read their terms and conditions.

Reference:
Kennedy J.J., Rayner, N.A., Smith, R.O., Saunby, M. and Parker, D.E. (2011b). Reassessing biases and other uncertainties in sea-surface temperature observations since 1850 part 1: measurement and sampling errors. J. Geophys. Res., 116, D14103, doi:10.1029/2010JD015218

Kennedy J.J., Rayner, N.A., Smith, R.O., Saunby, M. and Parker, D.E. (2011c). Reassessing biases and other uncertainties in sea-surface temperature observations since 1850 part 2: biases and homogenisation. J. Geophys. Res., 116, D14104, doi:10.1029/2010JD015220

Variables
sea surface temperature anomaly (degc)
sst measurement and sampling uncertainty (degc)
numbers of observations
ZonalGlobal by 5 deg
MeridionalGlobal by 5 deg
VerticalSea Surface  
Temporal Jan 1850 to Feb 2022 by 1 month(s)
Static?no
Volume 20MB per variable
Serverpublic:
Source http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadsst3/
Acquired Feb 20, 2014 (Updated Mar 2022)
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