Introduction
Welcome to the Sea Temperature Analysis page. Maps are available by region and for different time scales.
Navigating through this site is done with direct links to images. Choose the timeframe of interest (daily/weekly/monthly) and the region of interest (state-regions, Australia, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, or global).
The sea surface temperatures (SST) displayed in these pages are generated automatically by computer analysis systems, without human input or manual quality control. The maps display interpolated (gap-free) analyses of the temperature of the uppermost metre of the ocean, based on observations from both in-water instruments and satellites, and are updated either monthly, weekly or daily. As observations are not always available within the specified time interval for all areas covered, the analysis systems use “statistical interpolation” to fill in the gaps using a weighted combination of the previous SST analysis and climatology (the average SST for that region and time of year).
In each map the average SST over the time period, in degrees Celsius, is indicated either by the colours shown in the legend and/or the numbers associated with the contour lines.
'Anomaly' maps are also provided and display the degree difference from normal conditions (climatology).
Historical data records and information are available on request from Climate Data Services.
Routine supply of near real-time data and maps are available by contacting the Bureau’s Registered User Services Section.
Daily Sea Surface Temperature
Daily SST is available in near-real time (6 to 30 hours lag). The maps covering the globe provide SST analysis values for each 1/4 degree of latitude and longitude (approximately 25km). The temperature estimate is at approximately 0.2 metres depth. However, as the observations used for the analysis have been selected for only well-mixed conditions, these temperatures are similar to temperatures down to approximately 10 metres. The maps covering the Australian region (70° S to 20° N, 60° E to 170° W) provide SST values for each 1/12 degree of latitude and longitude (approximately 9km).
In addition to the in-water and satellite SST observations used for the weekly and monthly SST analyses, the daily SST analyses incorporate additional satellite SST observations to those used in the weekly and monthly analyses. In order to fill in some of the data gaps due to satellite infrared sensors that cannot penetrate cloud, they incorporate SST observations from microwave sensors on polar-orbiting satellites.
See Beggs et al. (2011) for more information
