NOAA Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature (ERSST), Version 5

The NOAA Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature (ERSST) dataset is a global monthly sea surface temperature dataset derived from the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Dataset (ICOADS). It is produced on a 2 x 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. Version 5 (v5) is the newest version of ERSST. Major revisions for v5 include: 1) using unadjusted first-guess instead of adjusted first-guess in QC, 2) using latest International Comprehensive Ocean Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS) Release 3.0 (R3.0) over 1854-2015 instead of R2.5 over 1854-2007, 3) using Argo temperature above 5 meter depth that has not been used in previous version ERSST and other SST analysis, 4) using latest UK Met Office HadISST2 ice concentration over 1870-2015 instead of HadISST1 ice concentration over 1870-2010, 5) removing damping in high latitudes north of 60 degrees North and south of 50 degrees South in Empirical Orthogonal Teleconnection (EOT) Functions, 6) adding 10 more EOT modes in the Arctic, 7) reducing spatial filtering in training EOTs, and 8) revising ship SST bias correction relative to nighttime marine air temperature (NMAT) to the one relative to buoy SST observations. Other features remain same as in the previous ERSST version 4. The data are written to monthly netCDF files following CF Metadata Conventions.