3.3.1 The surface temperature

Figure 9

This is a global map showing sea surface temperatures as indicated by range of colours.

There are evenly spaced horizontal and vertical gridlines that are unlabelled.

The land masses are shown in white and the ocean is shown in colour according to the surface temperature as indicated in the key.

The key is located underneath the map and consists of a horizontal band of colours.

The key is labelled 'sea surface temperature/°C' and is marked from −2.0 °C to 32.3 °C in intervals of 4.3 °C.

The colour scale begins with purple at the lowest temperature and then progresses through dark blue (2.3 °C) to pale blue and into green (15.1 °C). The shade of green gets darker and then fades into yellow above 24 °C and then into orange and red at the highest temperature.

The pattern on the map shows relatively even horizontal banding.

A similar pattern of banding is presented from the Antarctic to the Equator as is seen from the Arctic to the Equator. There is a band of purple colour at very high latitudes fading through blue, green and orange, with the orange and red colours along a central band along the Equator and in the tropics.

Noticeable deviations from the background pattern are fingers of green extending further north along the east coast of South America and Africa, as well as an extension of the green and blue colouration up the north Atlantic coast over Europe and an extension of the purple and dark blue down the northeast coast of Canada.