UAHTMAXv1: Globally Gridded Monthly Maximum Temperature Over Land Dataset

Maximum temperatures over land are demonstrated to be a more relevant variable to the long-term climate response than mean or minimum temperature due to the greater daytime connection to the deep atmosphere (Christy el al., 2009). This is the motivation for the construction of the University of Alabama in Huntsville monthly averages of maximum temperatures over land (UAHTMAXv1) dataset. UAHTMAXv1 primarily utilizes data from the International Surface Temperature Initiative (ISTI) which is roughly 36,000 stations (Rennie et al., 2014). The input station data are homogenized to account for artificial inhomogeneities such as station moves, instrumentation change, etc. Unlike other similar products, UAHTMAXv1s homogenization process makes use of multiple established homogenization techniques to create a probabilistic breakpoint location to adjust the inhomogeneity. The newly homogenized dataset is gridded to 5.0 x 5.0 grid to match the spatial resolution of the Night Marine Air Temperature dataset (UAHNMATv1, Junod and Christy, 2020) and has a temporal period that spans from 1850 - 2020. In the future, UAHTMAXv1 will be blended with UAHNMATv1 to create a global homogenous near-surface air temperature dataset.