Atmospheric desert-dust aerosol, primarily from north Africa, causes negative biases
in remotely sensed climate data records of sea surface temperature (SST). Here, large-scale bias
adjustments are deduced and applied to the v2 climate data record of SST from the European Space
Agency Climate Change Initiative (CCI). Unlike SST from infrared sensors, SST measured in situ is
not prone to desert-dust bias. An in-situ-based SST analysis is combined with column dust mass
from the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 to deduce
a monthly, large-scale adjustment to CCI analysis SSTs. Having reduced the dust-related biases,
a further correction for some periods of anomalous satellite calibration is also derived. The corrections
will increase the usability of the v2 CCI SST record for oceanographic and climate applications, such
as understanding the role of Arabian Sea SSTs in the Indian monsoon. The corrections will also pave
the way for a v3 climate data record with improved error characteristics with respect to atmospheric
dust aerosol
