Examination of Correction to Historical SST Data Using Long-term Coastal SST Data Taken around Japan

Abstract

Folland and Parker (1995) proposed the correction (so-called bucket correction) to historical sea surface temperature (SST) data from ship reports such as the Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (COADS). In order to examine the validation of this correction, comparison is made between SST data and long-term coastal SST (CSST) data taken at nine stations around Japan. For this purpose, we extract SST data in the adjacent areas surrounding nine CSST stations, from the files of COADS and the Kobe Collection data which have been recently released by the Japan Meteorological Agency and the Japan Weather Association. As a result, it is found that the data of five CSST stations among nine stations are suitable for comparison. When Folland and Parker's correction is adopted to the historical SST data, the systematic biases in monthly mean SST anomalies have been corrected almost perfectly at three stations, and the biases at the other two stations have been reduced by 40-50%.