“Polar” Sea and Land Surface Temperatures (Not Anomalies)

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This post illustrates Arctic and Antarctic/Southern Ocean surface temperatures (not anomalies) using NCDC OI.v2 Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and CPC GHCN/CAMS t2m Land Surface Temperature (LST) data. The intent is simply to show the ranges of the annual variations in temperature and the relative magnitude of those temperature ranges in comparison graphs. In other words, these are reference graphs. I have not provided a detailed narrative for them.

The OI.v2 SST data begins in November 1981. The GHCN/CAMS t2m data is available as far back as January 1948, but I’ve started in January 1979 so that the comparison graphs of LST and SST have similar periods.

Polar is in quotes in the title because these datasets do not include areas with sea ice. Sea surface temperature does not measure sea ice temperature. And like other datasets the GHCN/CAMS t2m data only measures temperature on land—not sea ice. Refer to Figure 1. So there is a “gap” in the data presented in this post; keep that in mind. Figure 1 also shows complete land surface temperature coverage for the Antarctic. You’ll have to refer to Fan and Dool (2007) “A global monthly land surface air temperature analysis for 1948-present” for the methods used to infill data. Link to Fan and Dool (2007):ftp://ftp.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/wd51yf/GHCN_CAMS/cpc_globalT.pdf
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Figure 1

Note: I’ve used the latitudes North of 65N for the Arctic and South of 60S for the Antarctic and the Southern Ocean.

POLAR SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES (SST)

Figures 2 and 3 show SST for the Arctic and Southern Oceans. And the comparison, Figure 4, shows the range of Arctic Ocean SST far exceeds that of the Southern Ocean.
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Figure 2
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Figure 3
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Figure 4

POLAR LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURES (LST)

Figures 5 and 6 illustrate LST for the Arctic and Antarctic. The comparison, Figure 7, again shows the variations in Arctic LST are much greater than in the Antarctic.
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Figure 5
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Figure 6
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Figure 7

POLAR LAND VERSUS SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES

The Arctic LST and SST are compared in Figure 8, the Antarctic SST and Southern Ocean SST are compared in Figure 9, and Figure 10 compares the four datasets. The variations in LST dwarf those of SST.
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Figure 8
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Figure 9
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Figure 10

SOURCES
The GHCN/CAMS t2m data is available through the KNMI Climate Explorer website:
http://climexp.knmi.nl/selectfield_obs.cgi?someone@somewhere

OI.v2 SST data is available through the NOAA NOMADS website:
http://nomad3.ncep.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/pdisp_sst.sh?lite=