Eric C. J. Oliver
Statistical downscaling of Australian continental shelf sea surface temperatures

The Oliver and Holbrook (Journal Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 2014) (pdf), or OH14, data set provides spatially and temporally homogeneous measurements of sea surface temperature (SST) variability at high resolution on the continental shelf around Australia.

  • The data arises from a hybrid statistical-physical downscaling model designed to more accurately and robustly represent SST on the continental shelf informed by large-scale satellite observations and reanalysis data. The downscaled shelf SST is modeled using: (i) offshore SST from Bluelink ReANalysis (BRAN), (ii) the statistical relationship between inshore and offshore SST in observations from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), and (iii) the mean circulation which provides connectivity information between the shelf and the offshore regions. The SST time series' were separated into the mean, seasonal cycle, and the residual variability, and separate models were developed for each component.
  • The data are provided as a single NetCDF file, along with a User's Manual and MATLAB script for loading the data: download data
  • The data set provides total SST, mean SST, SST seasonal cycle, residual SST along with error estimates. Total SST is defined as the sum of the mean, seasonal cycle and residual. Mean SST and the error estimates are provided as a single value at each of the shelf locations, while the total SST, SST seasonal cycle, and residual SST are provided as daily time series (14 Oct 1992 to 13 May 2008) at each of the shelf locations. The error estimates are provided as a standard deviation and a map of the error for total SST, which also doubles as an indicator for which location data is provided, is shown below:

    Figure 1: Error on total sea surface temperature of OH14 data set (error standard deviation).

  • A comparison of sea surface temperature time series from the OH14 data set against observations (AVHRR) and BRAN is shown below for two locations:

    Figure 2: A comparison of sea surface temperature from observations (AVHRR, black dots), Bluelink ReANalysis (BRAN, blue line), and OH14 downscaled data (red line, with 67\% and 95\% confidence limits shown by shaded areas) for a location in Bass Strait.


    Figure 3: As above, but for a location in Spencer Gulf.

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