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Global surface temperature data: MLOST: NOAA Merged Land-Ocean Surface Temperature Analysis

Change of temperature in the MLOST data set.

NOAA's Merged Land-Ocean Surface Temperature Analysis (MLOST) combines land surface air temperatures primarily from the Global Historical Climatology Network, Monthly (GHCN-M) version 3 with SSTs of the ERSSTv3b analysis into a comprehensive global surface temperature data set spanning 1880 to the present at monthly resolution, on a 5x5 degree latitude-longitude grid. As such, it is one of the main data sets used to monitor global and regional temperature variability and trends. Like GISTEMP, interpolation of the station records is performed to provide broad spatial coverage, however, the methodology is unique. Land and ocean domains are treated separately. For both domains, high and low-frequency variations are reconstructed separately using empirical orthogonal functions, and these signals are combined and blended with the original records. The final step involves combining the land and ocean data sets into one; over coastal regions land and ocean values are weighted in proportion to the amount of land or ocean in the 5x5 degree box. Data-sparse areas are masked to prevent reliance on the highly smoothed reconstruction estimates. Sea ice areas are also set to missing. 

Key Strengths:

  • Incorporates the most recent processing of GHCN (v3)

Key Limitations:

  • Limited coverage of polar regions

Years of Record

1871/01 to 2018/05
temporal metadataID:
gov.noaa.ncdc.C00934

Formats

Timestep

Monthly

Data Time Period Extended?

yes, data set is extended

Domain

Global

Spatial Resolution

5x5 degrees

Ocean or Land

Ocean&Land

Missing Data Flag

missing data present

Vertical Levels

Surface Data Set

Input Data

GHCN v3.3 (~7000 land stations); ERSSTv3b (SSTs)

Earth system components and main variables

Atmosphere, Air Temperature, Ocean, SST - sea surface temperature

Data Access: Please Cite data sources, following the data providers' instructions.

  1. NOAA ESRL: gridded monthly netCDF file
  2. NOAA NCDC: MLOST documentation and data access

Key Figures

Click the thumbnails to view larger sizes

Thumbnails

Captions
Change of temperature in the MLOST data set. credit: Climate Data Guide Change of annual mean temperatures between 1901:1920 and 1991:2010 based on the NOAA MLOST dataset. Credit: ClimateDataGuide, NCAR

Cite this page

National Center for Atmospheric Research Staff (Eds). Last modified 11 Aug 2018. "The Climate Data Guide: Global surface temperature data: MLOST: NOAA Merged Land-Ocean Surface Temperature Analysis." Retrieved from https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/global-surface-temperature-data-mlost-noaa-merged-land-ocean-surface-temperature.

Acknowledgement of any material taken from this page is appreciated. On behalf of experts who have contributed data, advice, and/or figures, please cite their work as well.

Global surface temperature data: MLOST: NOAA Merged Land-Ocean Surface Temperature Analysis

NOAA's Merged Land-Ocean Surface Temperature Analysis (MLOST) combines land surface air temperatures primarily from the Global Historical Climatology Network, Monthly (GHCN-M) version 3 with SSTs of the ERSSTv3b analysis into a comprehensive global surface temperature data set spanning 1880 to the present at monthly resolution, on a 5x5 degree latitude-longitude grid. As such, it is one of the main data sets used to monitor global and regional temperature variability and trends. Like GISTEMP, interpolation of the station records is performed to provide broad spatial coverage, however, the methodology is unique. Land and ocean domains are treated separately. For both domains, high and low-frequency variations are reconstructed separately using empirical orthogonal functions, and these signals are combined and blended with the original records. The final step involves combining the land and ocean data sets into one; over coastal regions land and ocean values are weighted in proportion to the amount of land or ocean in the 5x5 degree box. Data-sparse areas are masked to prevent reliance on the highly smoothed reconstruction estimates. Sea ice areas are also set to missing. 

1871-01/2018-05

Summary of Global Surface Temperature Data Sets

Namesort descending Temperature change Source Period of Record available timestep(s) available resolution Input Data Climatology
Global (land) precipitation and temperature: Willmott & Matsuura, University of Delaware U. Delaware / Cort J. Willmott, Kenji Matsuura 1900/01 to 2014/12 Climatology, Monthly 0.5x0.5 degree land stations from GHCNv2 and a few other sources
Global surface temperature data: GISTEMP: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) Surface Temperature Analysis GISTEMP trend; ClimataDataGuide figure. NASA GISS / R. Reudy, M. Sato, K. Lo, formerly J. Hansen 1880/01 to 2018/03 Monthly 2x2 degree GHCN v3 (~6300 land stations); ERSSTv3b (SSTs); SCAR READER (for Antarctic stations)
Global surface temperature data: HadCRUT4 and CRUTEM4 Change of temperature between 1901:1920 and 1991:2010 based on the HadCRUT4 dataset. Credit: ClimateDataGuide, NCAR U East Anglia CRU / Phil Jones and others,UK Met Office Hadley Centre 1850/01 to 2018/06 Climatology, Monthly 5x5 degrees ~5500 land station records from GHCN and other sources combined with HadSST3 HadCRU absolute temperature
Global surface temperature data: MLOST: NOAA Merged Land-Ocean Surface Temperature Analysis Change of temperature in the MLOST data set. credit: Climate Data Guide NOAA NCDC / RS Vose and others 1871/01 to 2018/05 Monthly 5x5 degrees GHCN v3.3 (~7000 land stations); ERSSTv3b (SSTs)
Global surface temperatures: BEST: Berkeley Earth Surface Temperatures Change of temperature between 1901:1920 and 1991:2010 based on the Berkeley Earth dataset. Credit: ClimateDataGuide, NCAR BerkeleyEarth.org/ R. Muller, R. Rhode 1701/01 to 2013/03 Climatology, Daily, Monthly 1x1 degree or equal-area grid, .25 degree available for USA and Europe combination of 14 databases of station data; ~37,000 individual records used;; merged land-ocean version uses HadSST3 Climatology of Berkeley Earth temperatures.