Climate.gov Data Snapshots: SST - Global, Monthly Difference from Average

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Version:  View help for Version V2

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  data 06/18/2025 07:21:AM
Climate_gov_ Data Snapshots.pdf application/pdf 10 MB 06/18/2025 03:16:AM
SST - Global, Monthly Difference from Average _ NOAA Climate.gov.pdf application/pdf 1.7 MB 06/18/2025 03:16:AM

Project Citation: 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Climate.gov Data Snapshots: SST - Global, Monthly Difference from Average. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-06-24. https://doi.org/10.3886/E233281V2

Project Description

Project Title:  View help for Project Title Climate.gov Data Snapshots: SST - Global, Monthly Difference from Average
Summary:  View help for Summary
Q: Is sea surface temperature warmer or cooler than usual?

A: Colors on this map show where and by how much monthly sea surface temperature differed from a long-term average (1985-1993, details from Coral Reef Watch). Red and orange areas were warmer than average, and blue areas were cooler than average. The darker the color, the larger the difference from the long-term average. White and very light areas were near average.

Q: Where do these measurements come from?

A: These monthly measurements are made from NOAA's CoralTemp sea surface temperature (SST) data. Every day, instruments on eight satellites in two different orbits (geostationary and polar) measure sea surface temperature by checking how much energy is radiated by the ocean at different wavelengths. Computer programs plot these measurements on a gridded map and then merge and smooth the data into a gap-free product using mathematical filters. Each grid point covers an area approximately 5 x 5 km. Daily temperatures at each grid point are averaged together to calculate monthly average temperature.  To calculate the difference-from-average temperatures shown here, a computer program takes the monthly average temperature at each grid point, and subtracts the long-term average for that month. If the result is a positive number, the sea surface was warmer than the long-term average. A negative result from the subtraction means the sea surface was cooler than usual.

Q: What do the colors mean?

A: Shades of blue show locations where sea surface temperature was cooler than its long-term average. Locations shown in shades of orange and red are where the sea’s surface was warmer than the long-term average. The darker the shade of red or blue, the larger the difference from the long-term average or “usual” sea surface temperature. Locations that are white or very light show where sea surface temperature was the same as or very close to its long-term average.

Q: Why do these data matter?

A: Water covers more than 70% of our planet's surface. Tracking the temperature of the sea’s surface helps scientists understand how much heat energy is in the ocean and how it changes over time. Sea surface temperatures can have dramatic impacts on weather, including weather patterns such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) that travel hundreds of miles inland. Sea surface temperatures also play a significant role in the extent and thickness of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, which serve as our planet’s built-in air-conditioning system. And sea surface temperatures have significant effects on marine life. The upwelling of cold water, for instance, provides nutrients to phytoplankton, the base of the marine food chain. In contrast, warm ocean surface waters deprive phytoplankton of nutrients, sometimes with devastating effects up the chain.

Q: How did you produce these snapshots?

A: Data Snapshots are derivatives of existing data products: to meet the needs of a broad audience, we present the source data in a simplified visual style. NOAA's Environmental Visualization Laboratory (NNVL) produces the Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly files. To produce our images, we run a set of scripts that access these NNVL source files, re-project them into a Hammer-Aitoff globe, and output them in a range of sizes.




This upload includes two additional files:
* SST - Global, Monthly Difference from Average _NOAA Climate.gov.pdf is a screenshot of the main Climate.gov site for these snapshots ()
* Cimate_gov_ Data Snapshots.pdf is a screenshot of the data download page for the full-resolution files.

Original Distribution URL:  View help for Original Distribution URL https://www.climate.gov/data/Ocean--Monthly--Difference-from-average-Sea-Surface-Temperature--Global/

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms climate; climate change; sea temperature; ocean; temperature
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage Global
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1/2000 – 5/2025 (Monthly images from 2000 to present)
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) images: photographs, drawings, graphical representations
Collection Notes:  View help for Collection Notes Data is divided in to folders by image resolution -- full size (zip), kml (zip), broadcast (png), small (png), and large (png). Occasionally there may be one image missing in a particular size but available in another size.

Data downloaded from climate.gov 6/15/2025 - 6/16/2025 (small, large, and full resolution) and 6/21/2025 (others).


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Published Versions

V2 [2025-06-24]

V1 [2025-06-21]

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