Satellite-based time-series of sea-surface temperature since 1981 for climate applications.

A climate data record of global sea surface temperature (SST) spanning 1981-2016 has been developed from 4 × 10 satellite measurements of thermal infra-red radiance. The spatial area represented by pixel SST estimates is between 1 km and 45 km. The mean density of good-quality observations is 13 km yr.