Overview:

Until recently the Arctic Ocean has lacked a systematic, accurate surface air temperature (SAT) data set. These fields of surface air temperature are essential   for monitoring climate, assessing the environment, validating and driving model simulations and for input into studies of climate change.  Martin and Muñoz (1997) have studied the accuracy of various gridded temperature data sets by comparing the values of each data set against measurements taken at the Russian North Pole (NP) drifting stations. A SAT analysis analyzed using optimal interpolation (OI) to combine buoy and land station data was also tested and found to have higher correlations with the measurements at the NP stations compared to the other gridded temperature data sets.  Here, we build upon the work of Martin and Muñoz (1997) [Make Link]  and use seasonal and spatial statistics to further improve the OI analyzed fields
 

Documentation:

Spatial Coverage

Temporal Coverage/Resolution

Data Format:

Flags were used in quality checking. Currently undocumented. The coordinates corresponding to each grid point can be found in the file llatlon.

Data Access/Download:

References:

Rigor, I., R. Colony, and S. Martin, Variations in Surface Air Temperature Observations in the Arctic, 1979 - 1997, J. Climate,
     accepted 1999. (Full text of manuscript as accepted by J. Climate: PDF version)
 

Applications:

Contact:

Known Problems:

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