Seasonal and interannual variability of the Black Sea surface temperature as revealed from satellite data (1982-2000)

Nighttime weekly multichannel sea surface temperature (MCSST) data set based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) measurements (spatial and temperature resolution of about 18 kin and 0.1 degreesC) was used to investigate seasonal and interannual variability of the Black Sea SST during the period from November 1981 to December 2000. The SST fields averaged for the central months of four hydrological seasons (February, May, August, and November) were calculated and compared with the corresponding climatic SST fields based on in situ measurements. An analysis of the calculated weekly mean SSTs both for the whole sea and for its western and eastern deep-sea areas individually has indicated the years with the winter and summer SST anomalies as well as a long-term temperature trend. It turned out that the winter weekly mean SST minima fell on 1985, 1987, 1992, and 1993, SST maxima on 1984, 1988, 1995, and 1999. Since 1994, winters were relatively warm. The minimum peak summer SSTs were observed in 1982, 1984, and 1985, maximum values-in 1991, 1992, 1998, and 1999. Most of the marked anomalies of the summer and winter SSTs as well as the greatest seasonal amplitudes of SST (in 1987, 1992, and 1998) occurred either during the El Ni (n) over tildeo global events or some months later. A positive trend of the Black Sea mean SST of about 0.09 degreesC/year over the period of consideration was revealed, the western deep-sea region getting warmer more slowly (about 0.08 degreesC/year) as compared with the eastern one (about 0.11 degreesC/year). In the first half of the period (1982-1991), the trends of the yearly and seasonally mean (besides of the summer averaged) SSTs were considerably less than in the second one (1992-2000); the summer averaged SST trend was approximately the same in both of the subperiods. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.