Ck. Folland et De. Parker, CORRECTION OF INSTRUMENTAL BIASES IN HISTORICAL SEA-SURFACE TEMPERATURE DATA, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 121(522), 1995, pp. 319-367
We describe a physically based empirical technique for correcting hist
orical sea surface temperature measurements for time-varying biases. T
he corrections are based on models of heat and moisture transfers from
uninsulated (canvas) and partially insulated (wooden) sea temperature
buckets exposed on deck. One of the canvas bucket models is tested us
ing measurements on board ship and published wind-tunnel measurements.
The method gives geographically and seasonally varying bias correctio
ns through the period 1856 to 1941. The corrections are fairly insensi
tive to uncertainties such as the size of the bucket or the details of
its exposure on deck. A discussion of the history of sea surface temp
erature observations provides a background to the procedure. The resul
ting globally and seasonally averaged sea surface temperature correcti
ons increase from 0.11 degC in 1856 to 0.42 degC by 1940. The correcti
ons are compatible with recent measurements made at sea of the errors
of canvas buckets. Global and hemispheric time series of corrected sea
surface temperature and night marine air temperature data show good a
greement: more detailed verifications of the corrections will be repor
ted elsewhere.