The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has recently released a new daily SST dataset based on optimal interpolation of in situ and satellite data as described in Reynolds et al. (2007, J. Climate pp 5473-5496). The SST analysis is global and has a horizontal resolution of ¼ degree and daily temporal resolution. The data is available from January 1985 to the present.

Here we conduct a survey of SST variability as identified in this high-resolution data set, This includes analyses of:

* the standard deviation of SSTs and SST gradients as a function season.

* the leading patterns of variability in the North Pacific and the North Atlantic

* variability associated with fluctuations in the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio Extension

e.g. regressions of SSTs onto the dominant mode of variability of the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio currents. The former is dominated by a meridional shift of the entire current system.

* global ENSO teleconnections, which have a strong impact on SSTs in the Western Pacific in Summer and North Atlantic in winter

NOAA has also released a comparable ¼ degree wind data set and we plan to analyze the wind variability that accompanies the SST changes.