Temporal variability and spatial distribution of Sea Surface Temperatures in the Aegean Sea

Summary Sea Surface Temperature (SST) is a critical factor in the assessment of the climatic structure of a coastal region affected mainly by air temperature (AT). A regionalization of the Aegean Sea based on SST values measured at twenty-one representative stations is presented using a widely accepted clustering method. With this method, the Aegean Sea is divided into sub-regions with similar characteristics, on a seasonal basis.Principal Component Analysis (PCA) shows that SSTs oscillate simultaneously in the Aegean Sea and that the major part of the variance is concentrated in the first mode. Spectral analysis shows a high concentration of energy for periods of one year, as is expected. When the annual oscillation is filtered, two secondary peaks can be distinguished, one representing periods from two to three years and another representing periods from three to five years. The first peak is caused by the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) and the second as a result of the Southern Oscillation (SO).Interannual variability of the SSTs, although present in the overall signal, seems to be low compared with the strong annual period signal.With 7 Figures