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Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Average Annual Maximum Anomaly, 1985-2018 - American Samoa

Published by Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS) | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Metadata Last Checked: January 26, 2026 | Last Modified: 2021-09-07T00:00:00.000+00:00
Sea surface temperature (SST) plays an important role in a number of ecological processes and can vary over a wide range of time scales, from daily to decadal changes. SST influences primary production, species migration patterns, and coral health. If temperatures are anomalously warm for extended periods, drastic changes in the surrounding ecosystem can result, including harmful effects such as coral bleaching. This layer represents the annual average of the maximum anomaly of SST (degrees Celsius) from 1985-2018. These SST dataset are derived from CoralTemp 5-km gap-free analyzed blended sea surface temperature over the global ocean. CoralTemp is derived from three different but related 5-km daily gap-free SST data sets and provides an internally consistent SST product that stretches from 1985 to present. 1) Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Ice Analysis (OSTIA) Sea Surface Temperature Reanalysis (1985-2002). 2) Geo-Polar Blended Night-Only Sea Surface Temperature Reanalysis (2002-2016). 3) Geo-Polar Blended Night-Only Sea Surface Temperature Near Real-Time (2017 to present). The 8-day composites are generated from daily Coral Reef Watch (CRW) files by OceanWatch Central Pacific. The SST average annual maximum anomaly was calculated by taking the average of the annual maximum SST values in exceedance of the maximum monthly climatological SST from 1985-2018 for each pixel. Data source: https://oceanwatch.pifsc.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/CRW_sst_v1_0_8day.graph

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