NOAA NCEI Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature 

The NOAA NCEI (National Center for Environmental Information) Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature (ERSST) dataset is a global monthly sea surface temperature dataset derived from the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Dataset (ICOADS). Production of the ERSST is on a 2 degree grid with spatial completeness enhanced using statistical methods. This monthly analysis begins in January 1854 continuing to the present and includes anomalies computed with respect to a 1971-2000 monthly climatology. The newest version of ERSST, version 5, uses new data sets from ICOADS Release 3.0 (Sea Surface Temperatures) SST; SST comes from Argo floats above 5 meters, Hadley Centre sea ice and SST version 2 (HadISST.2) ice concentration. ERSSTv5 has improved SST spatial and temporal variability by

reducing spatial filtering in training the reconstruction functions Empirical Orthogonal Teleconnections (EOTs),
removing high-latitude damping in EOTs,
adding 10 more EOTs in the Arctic.

ERSSTv5 improved absolute SST by switching from using Nighttime Marine Air Temperature (NMAT) as a reference to buoy SST as a reference in correcting ship SST biases. Scientists have further improved ERSSTv5 by using unadjusted First-Guess instead of adjusted First-Guess.

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Temporal Range

  • Begin:  1854-01-01T0000+00
    End:  2021-02-15T0000+00

Keywords

Resource Type dataset
Temporal Range Begin 1854-01-01T0000+00
Temporal Range End 2021-02-15T0000+00
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat 88.0
Bounding Box South Lat -88.0
Bounding Box West Long -180.0
Bounding Box East Long 180.0
Spatial Representation grid
Spatial Resolution 2 degree
Related Links N/A
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format NetCDF
NetCDF4
Standardized Resource Format NetCDF
Asset Size 323.347 MB
Legal Constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name N/A
Resource Support Email datahelp@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization N/A
Distributor NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email datahelp@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange

Author National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
Publisher NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research
Publication Date 2019-03-27
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) https://doi.org/10.5065/JZ08-3W17
Alternate Identifier d277009
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category oceans
Progress onGoing
Metadata Date 2025-10-09T01:22:38Z
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.gdex::d277009
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce. (2019). NOAA NCEI Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature. NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research. https://doi.org/10.5065/JZ08-3W17. Accessed 11 October 2025.

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