Data Table

The table will include the following columns:

max $partialdiff sub T$ mean [ NOAA NCDC ERSST version3b sst ]

This table is intended primarily to be read. However, you may have other intentions for this table, so we provide a number of options below so that you may generate as useful a table as possible.

Options

Column 1

Missing Data	Missing Data Marker	File Type	End-of-Line Marker

filename

Options not understood can be left unchanged.

Column 1 ... 1

Numeric gives both the grid values and the data values as numbers; text gives times as month-year while continuing to give the data as numbers. ISO8601 gives dates in that standard date format and is highly recommended, particularly for reading back into the Data Library.

Missing Data

You have the choice of skipping (i.e. omitting) all lines that contain missing data, blanking missing data (i.e. there will still be a line), or marking missing data. The Missing Data Marker lets you specify the missing data marker in that marking case.

File Type

Each columnar table is available in five file formats.

html: will be displayed by your (table-aware) browser.
tsv (tab-separated-values): entries will be separated by tab characters; two lines of header.
cvs (comma-separated-values): entries will be separated by commas; one line of header.
R tsv: entries will be separated by tab characters; one line of header. This format of tsv file is readable by R.
IGOR tsv: entries will be separated by tab characters; one line of header that starts with a # sign. This format of tsv file is favored by some graphics programs.
latex: a tabular element for including in a LaTeX document.
free: entries will be separated by spaces; two lines of header. This works best for purely numeric data: names tend to have stray spaces. Usable for SAS, for example.

End-of-Line Marker

The end-of-line marker option is there merely to help you if you have problems: generously written programs will accept all three versions so that you won't have to care.

You can have either tab-separated-values or IGOR tsv files loaded directly into a program by your WWW browser by setting the helper for text/tab-separated-values to your favorite spreadsheet or plotting program.