Global coverage on a 1° latitude x 1° longitude grid

Skin temperature of the water column; Snow and ice mass, thickness and extent

Inapplicable

Global SST fields were created using a variety of techniques including Reduced Space Optimal Interpolation (RSOI). Sea ice concentration fields from different sources were analysed to make them as consistent as possible through time. Some care should be taken when using the sea-ice concentration data, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere where there is no realistic interannual variability in sea ice prior to 1973. The HadISST1 data set has been shown to be an improvement upon (and has superseded) the GISST data set.

Rayner, N.A., Parker, D.E., Horton, E.B., Folland, C.K., Alexander, L.V., Rowell, D.P., Kent, E.C., Kaplan, A. (2003) Global analyses of SST, sea ice and night marine air temperature since the late nineteenth century., Journal of Geophysical Research, 108.

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