3 ms·
This is the "daily average sea surface temperature between 60°N and 60°S". And southern latitudes have more exposed ocean than northern ones. See 60° to 60° o
by ethbr0 3y ago
This is the "daily average sea surface temperature between 60°N and 60°S".
And southern latitudes have more exposed ocean than northern ones.
See 60° to 60° on "Land Mass at Each Latitude" https://www.ecoclimax.com/2016/08/land-mass-at-each-longitude-and-latitude.html?m=1 https://www.ecoclimax.com/2016/08/land-mass-at-each-longitud...
Which would make sense that southern summer (ending ~March) would be the typical yearly peak. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_equinox https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_equinox
- genezeta 3y agoYes, you're absolutely right. There's more sea surface in the southern hemisphere, so it makes sense that generally the peak would be determined by southern summer.
- ethbr0 3y agoI'm rethinking this after puzzling over it for a minute. Since it's the average... total sea area shouldn't matter. Land heats up faster than sea, but likely doesn't transfer much of that heat into the ocean, so the sea:land ratio might be immaterial. Probably more indicative is what deep to shallow circulation currents exist in the northern vs southern oceans. From memory, the northern has many more "vertical" circulations, that might lead to cooling surface temperatures.
- genezeta 3y agoClearly we can't know for sure unless we have more information about the data itself. But my reasoning is this: If we assume a uniform number of "samples per area" then the north/south distinction does matter. Larger total sea area in the south would mean more samples taken in the south. And therefore more influence of "southern samples" on the total average. Again, we don't know unless we have more info, but it seems like a reasonable assumption to make.