Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly Trends
I figure this is as good a time as any for my semi-annual checkup on the world's sea-surface temperature anomalies. What I usually like to do is show you the latest image from NOAA and then compare that to the previous years, focusing around the same day of the year, which in this case is January 28th.
The sea-surface temperature anomaly data is retrieved by infrared radiometers on earth orbiting satellites. According to NOAA, the resolution of the image is down to 50 kilometers. Also, areas with at least 15% coverage of sea-ice are shown in white. Darker blue and purple areas indicate below-normal sea surface temperatures, while the darker yellow/orange areas are above-normal.
January 28th, 2008 (You can clearly see the pronounced blue region extending along the equatorial Pacific which is indicative of the moderate La Nina going on.)
January 30th, 2007
January 27th, 2006
January 29th, 2005
January 27th, 2004
January 28th, 2003
January 29th, 2002
January 30th, 2001
January 29th, 2000
January 27th, 1998 (Note: the bright orange in the eastern equatorial Pacific which is the strong El Nino)
