Global Mean Sea Level Pressure Grids Since 1850

HadSLP2 provides monthly, globally-complete fields of mean sea level pressure on a 5-degree latitude-longitude grid. The dataset was created by the Met Office Hadley Centre and covers the period from 1850 to 2004, with an updated near real-time version (HadSLP2r) also available.

Use Cases

• Analyze long-term trends in the monthly mean sea level pressure (MSLP) field to study climate oscillations like the North Atlantic Oscillation.
• Validate global climate model outputs by comparing simulated MSLP grids against the observed 5-degree gridded historical data.
• Reconstruct historical weather patterns by examining spatial pressure anomalies across the land and marine observation grid from 1850.
• Study interannual variability in atmospheric pressure by examining the time-series of gridded pressure values.

Strengths

• 155 years of continuous monthly data from 1850 to 2004
• Globally-complete fields combining land and marine pressure observations
• Spatial data provided on a standardized 5-degree latitude-longitude grid

Limitations

• Spatial resolution is coarse at 5 degrees, limiting local-scale analysis
• Primary dataset ends in 2004, requiring the 'r' version for recent years
• Marine observation density and quality may vary significantly over the historical period

Provenance

Source

Met Office Hadley Centre

Collection Method

Combination of land station and marine observation data interpolated to a global grid.

Time Range

1850 to 2004

Freshness

The core HadSLP2 dataset is historical; the HadSLP2r version offers near real-time updates.

Geography

Global, 5-degree latitude-longitude grid