Five Year Mean Sea-Surface Temperature in the Northern Gulf of Mexico for 2005 through 2009

These images were created by combining the mean sea-surface temperature values to produce seasonal representations for winter, spring, summer and fall. Winter includes the months of January, February and March; spring includes the months of April, May and June; summer includes the months of July, August and September; fall includes the months of October, November and December. Sea-surface temperature values were originally obtained from the Naval Research Laboratory at the Stennis Space Center (NRL/SSC). NRL/SSC processed MODIS-Aqua satellite imagery covering the Gulf of Mexico, for a 5-year time period from January 2005 through December 2009. The Gulf of Mexico was divided into three regions, western, central and eastern. For purposes of this image, the three regions were joined in ArcMAP 10. Sea-surface temperature from MODIS-Aqua was calculated with the standard NASA processing algorithm; uncertainties are about 0.1 C or less (Minnett et al. 2004). These values were then reclassified into temperature categories in accordance with the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS). Four CMECS ranges in 10 degree increments were used for this study: cold (0 - < 10 degrees C), temperate (10 - < 20 degrees C), warm (20 - < 30 degrees C), hot (> 30 degrees C).However, in the FGDC-endorsed CMECS (FGDC-STD-018-2012) temperature ranges are presented in 5 degree increments. The mean sea-surface values for the northern Gulf of Mexico only fall into three of the four categories, temperate (shown as yellow), warm (shown as blue) and hot (shown as red).