Abstract
Based on a new and unique compilation of surface ship data over the world ocean, the Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (COADS), the temperature records since 1870 were thoroughly analyzed. Results for the air and sea surface temperature are presented for the two hemispheres and for individual 10°-latitude wide belts. The results support most earlier results of a relatively warm period over the oceans in the late 19th century, a cool period between about 1905 and 1930, and a warm period from the 1940's onward. Of considerable interest and perhaps unique in the historical record are the diverging trends in the midlatitude sea and air temperatures of the two hemispheres during the 1960's and early 1970's with relative cooling in the Northern Hemisphere and relative heating in the Southern Hemisphere.
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Oort, A.H., Pan, Y.H., Reynolds, R.W. et al. Historical trends in the surface temperature over the oceans based on the COADS. Climate Dynamics 2, 29–38 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01088852
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01088852