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Moderate-Resolution Sea Surface Temperature Data for the Nearshore North Pacific
Citation:
PAYNE, M. C., D. REUSSER, H. LEE, II, AND C. A. BROWN. Moderate-Resolution Sea Surface Temperature Data for the Nearshore North Pacific. United States Geological Survey, Denver, CO, EPA/600/R-11/024, 2011.
Impact/Purpose:
The purpose of this publication is to provide a nearshore sea surface temperature (SST) dataset for ecologists, biogeographers, oceanographers, and other scientists conducting research on coastal marine habitats or processes. The region covered by the data is the Temperate Northern Pacific Ocean as defined by the “Marine Ecosystems of the World” (MEOW) biogeographic schema developed by The Nature Conservancy. The spatial resolution of the SST data is 4-km grid cells within approximately 20 km of the shore. The temporal span of the data covers a 29-year time period from 9/1981 to 12/2009. The data and the processing methods used to transform the data into other formats are explained to provide the background for researchers to determine if these data are suitable for their specific research.
Description:
Coastal sea surface temperature (SST) is an important environmental characteristic defining habitat suitability for nearshore marine and estuarine organisms. The purpose of this publication is to provide access to an easy-to-use coastal SST dataset for ecologists, biogeographers, oceanographers, and other scientists conducting research on nearshore marine habitats or processes. The region covered by the data is the Temperate Northern Pacific Ocean as defined by the “Marine Ecosystems of the World” (MEOW) biogeographic schema developed by The Nature Conservancy. The spatial resolution of the SST data is 4-km grid cells within 20 km of the shore. The temporal span of the data covers a 29-year time period from 9/1981 to 12/2009. These SST data were derived from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instrument measurements compiled into monthly means as part of the Pathfinder versions 5.0 and 5.1 (PFSST V50 and V51) Project. The processing methods used to transform the data from their native Hierarchical Data Format Scientific Data Set (HDF SDS) to georeferenced, spatial datasets capable of being read into geographic information systems (GIS) software is explained. In addition, examples of scripts involved in the data processing steps are made available. The scripts were written in the Python programming language, which is supported by ESRI’s ArcGIS version 9 or later. The processed data files are also provided in text (.csv) and Access 2003 Database (.mdb) formats. All data except the raster files include attributes identifying realm, province, and ecoregion as defined by MEOW classification schema.
