Satellite-Observed Spatial and Temporal Sea Surface Temperature Trends of the Baltic Sea between 1982 and 2021

Abstract

The Baltic Sea is one of the fastest-warming marginal seas globally, and its temperature rise has adversely affected its physical and biochemical characteristics. In this study, forty years (1982–2021) of sea surface temperature (SST) data from the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) were used to investigate spatial and temporal SST variability of the Baltic Sea. To this end, annual maximum and minimum SST stacked series, i.e., time series of stacked layers of satellite data, were generated using high-quality observations acquired at night and were fed to an automatic algorithm to detect linear and non-linear trend patterns. The linear trend pattern was the dominant trend type in both stacked series, while more pixels with non-linear trend patterns were detected when using the annual minimum SST. However, both stacked series showed increases in SST across the Baltic Sea. Annual maximum SST increased by an average of 0.062 ± 0.041 °C per year between 1982 and 2021, while annual minimum SST increased by an average of 0.035 ± 0.017 °C per year over the same period. Averaging annual maximum and minimum trends produces a spatial average of 0.048 ± 0.022 °C rise in SST per year over the last four decades.