An operational near‐real‐time global temperature index

To capture the global land surface temperature signal in a timely way, a blend of traditional long-term in situ climatic data sets, combined with real time Global Telecommunications System monthly CLIMAT summaries is employed. For the global sea surface, long-term ship data climatologies are combined with a blend of ship, buoy, and satellite data to provide the greatest possible coverage over the oceans. The result is a global century-scale surface temperature index that closely parallels other widely published global surface temperature measurements and can be updated monthly a week or two after the end of a month.