Hadley Centre SST data set (HadSST3)
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 have been adjusted to minimise the effects of
changes in instrumentation throughout the record. The data set is
presented as a set of interchangeable realisations that capture the
temporal and spatial characteristics of the estimated uncertainties in
the biases. The data are neither interpolated nor variance adjusted.
The data set runs from 1850 to 2006, but regular updates will soon be
available.
Brief description of the data
The SST data are taken from version 2.5 of the International Comprehensive
Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set, ICOADS (external
web page), from 1850 to 2007. 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
corrections 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 corrections following the procedures
described in the paper. See here for a discussion of
uncertainties.
For a detailed description of the dataset and its production process, see
the papers cited in the references section. We recommended you read both
papers before using the data.
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References
When using the data set in a paper, the following are the correct citations to use:
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 (PDF 1Mb)
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 (PDF 1Mb)
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Other information
Diagrams from the papers
Frequently asked questions.
Brief description of methods.
Discussion of uncertainties in SST data.
References.
Online discussion of the paper
Dataset produced in collaboration with:
