Abstract:
The POLES Arctic Gridded 2-meter Air Temperature Data Set provides
optimally interpolated 2-meter air temperatures on the EASE (Equal
Area SSM/I Earth) grid. 12-hourly "beta" fields have been analyzed
from 1979 through 1997. The format of these files is as follows:
grid point #, day * 10, AirT *100, then 4 flags that we have been
using to check the dataset. The coordinates corresponding to each
... grid point can be found in the file latlon.
Until recently the Arctic Ocean has lacked a systematic, accurate
surface air temperature (SAT) data set. These fields of surface air
temperature are essential for monitoring climate, assessing the
environment, validating and driving model simulations and for input
into studies of climate change.
Martin and Muqoz (1997) have studied the accuracy of various
gridded temperature data sets by comparing the values of each data set
against measurements taken at the Russian North Pole (NP) drifting
stations. A SAT analysis analyzed using optimal interpolation (OI) to
combine buoy and land station data was also tested and found to have
higher correlations with the measurements at the NP stations compared
to the other gridded temperature data sets.
The SAT data used to compute statistics and for the OI analysis are:
1.) Argos buoy data collected by the International Arctic Buoy
Programme, 2.) North Pole manned drifting station data obtained from
the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia,
and 3.) meteorological land station data obtained from NCAR, dataset 464.0. 
