Sandford et al. (2026) Addressing the World War 2 Warm Anomaly in HadSST.4.2.0.0

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: International Journal of Climatology
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-04-23
• Authors: Caroline Sandford, Nick Rayner
• DOI: 10.1002/joc.70388

Research Groups

• Hadley Centre

Short Summary

This study presents an update to the HadSST dataset (version 4.2.0.0) to eliminate a residual warm bias during the Second World War (WW2) by refining Engine Room Intake (ERI) bias corrections and addressing truncation bias in Japanese observations.

Objective

• To remove the WW2 warm anomaly in the HadSST dataset using a physically-based approach that remains independent of land surface temperature records.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global
• Temporal Scale: Focus on the Second World War period, with specific corrections applied to data from 1933 to 1961.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Physically-based bias correction constraints for Engine Room Intake (ERI) and truncation bias corrections.
• Data sources: HadSST4, Japanese Kobe Collection, and comparative datasets including ERSSTv6, COBE-SST3, and DCSST.

Main Results

• Identified ERI bias corrections as the dominant factor contributing to the warm bias in HadSST4.
• Successfully removed the WW2 warm anomaly through new constraints on pre-1950 ERI bias estimates.
• Corrected truncation bias in the Japanese Kobe Collection (1933–1961).
• Demonstrated that the warm anomaly can be removed without relying on land surface temperature records, preserving structural diversity among global SST datasets.

Contributions

• Provides an updated global SST dataset (HadSST.4.2.0.0) that resolves a significant historical bias using a physically-consistent methodology rather than empirical adjustment to other temperature records.

Funding

• Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Sandford2026Addressing,
  author = {Sandford, Caroline and Rayner, Nick},
  title = {Addressing the World War 2 Warm Anomaly in <scp>HadSST.4.2.0.0</scp>},
  journal = {International Journal of Climatology},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1002/joc.70388},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.70388}
}