ERSLP provides a monthly gridded analysis of sea level pressure reconstructed from ship-based observations. NOAA's analysis begins in January 1854, though data is sparse before 1910. The dataset was constructed by SCIOPS using COADS data and was last updated in 1997.
Use Cases
- Analyze long-term trends and variability in the monthly sea level pressure field over oceans.
- Validate and bias-correct climate model simulations of historical atmospheric pressure.
- Study teleconnection patterns like the Southern Oscillation by correlating pressure time series across grid points.
- Reconstruct historical weather patterns and storm tracks using the gridded pressure analysis.
Strengths
- Temporal coverage spans over 140 years, from 1854 onward.
- Reconstruction employs improved statistical methods for handling sparse historical data.
Limitations
- The analyzed signal is heavily damped before 1910 due to sparse observational data.
- The dataset has not been updated since 1997, missing recent decades.
- Spatial coverage is limited to ocean areas covered by the historical COADS ship observations.
Provenance
- Source
- NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (original website cited).
- Collection Method
- Statistical reconstruction using the Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (COADS) sea level pressure observations.
- Time Range
- January 1854 onward.
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Global ocean areas.