Anomaly maps refer to visual representations that show unusual or unexpected patterns in data. They help identify and highlight areas or points that do not match the typical or normal behavior, making it easier to detect anomalies, such as outliers or abnormalities, in a dataset.
Full definition
For each month, the
temperature anomaly map can be modified to eliminate all the map cells which are missing from the corresponding month of the less complete data set.
However, the
SST anomaly maps illustrate that the situation is far more complex than this simple picture.
You will be directed to a page showing the monthly
climate anomaly maps along with the anomaly for the season if all maps for the selected season have been completed.
Yet the GHCN - M coverage used by NOAA does provide a very poor level of Antarctic coverage as their November 2017
anomaly map shows quote clearly.
The ridge of high pressure is seen here on a 500 millibar pressure
anomalies map from Feb. 15, 2015.
Lastly, we note that inspection of the September to December temperature
anomaly maps clearly reveal the developing La Niña conditions as a cold pattern in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific.
In the March 2010 GISS temperature
anomaly map Finland appears as a «hot spot» surrounded by cold temperatures: -LSB-...]
Annual fire weather season
length anomaly maps for a subset of known severe fire years are presented in Fig. 4 and anomalies for all years are presented in Supplementary Figs 1 — 4 and annual ensemble - mean anomaly data are available as Supplementary Data 1.
World temperature anomaly map [by Wikimedia Commons author Giorgiogp2] is based on USGS temperature reconstruction data, as shown below the world map, for the late Pliocene period between 3.3 - 3.0 Ma.
However, the impact of coverage bias is pretty clear; it can be seen by simply looking at a coverage and
anomaly map as we did here, or by assessment of coverage bias using GISTEMP, or by the less valid but independent assessment using UAH.
It is a global surface temperature
anomaly map which shows warming (and infrequently, cooling) by region.
Global temperature deviations in the Average Temperature
Anomaly map below tell the bigger picture story.
Now for my favorite comparison, the global
anomaly maps from the NOAA and the NCEP, via Weatherbell.
The June 2013 Global State of the Climate report introduces percentile maps that complement the information provided by
the anomaly maps.
The maps on the right are percentile maps that complement the information provided by
the anomaly maps.
The anomaly map on the left is a product of a merged land surface temperature (Global Historical Climatology Network, GHCN) and sea surface temperature (ERSST.v3b) anomaly analysis developed by Smith et al. (2008).
Looking at the June temperature
anomaly map, we find very large zones of 2 - 4 C above average readings running up toward the Northern Hemisphere Pole.
Perhaps the UAH guys use the same method as Johnson and Fu when extending
their anomaly maps further over Antarctica?
Daniel Curewitz — The GISS tool allows you to make trend and
anomaly maps for months and seasons.
The anomaly maps produced by GISS / NCDC / Hadley Centre are full of holes.
Thus
the anomaly map is consistent with cold water from the Arctic flowing through the Fram Strait down into the blob.
A tiny fraction of cells in
the anomaly maps either have misleadingly short anomaly periods or entirely different anomaly periods.
Evaluations such as presented or referenced above show that use of ERA - Interim to provide prompt monthly summaries of several hydrological variables in terms of
anomaly maps and time series is on quite firm ground for Europe, including sub-divisions between west and east, and north and south.