Note: ASCII data files are NOT archived in NCDC Archiving System
      NetCDF data files ARE archived in NCDC Archiving System

ERSST in ASCII format
filename convention:

(1) ERSST 

ersst.VERSION.yyyy.asc
yyyy=year

Units: isst=100 degree C
Missing value=-9999

(2) grid information
latitude: -88.0, increase northward per 2 degree, to +88.0
longitude:  0.0, increase eastward per 2 degree, to 358.0

(3) FORTRAN example

      integer isst(180,89)
      real    rsst(180,89)
      character*4 cyr

      open(51,file='../ersst.VERSION.2010.asc',status='old')
                       do iy=2010,2010

      write(cyr(1:4),'(i4.4)') iy
      open(61,file='ersst.VERSION.'//cyr//'.asc',form='unformatted')

      do mon=1,12
      print*,iy,mon

      do i=1,180
      read(51,81) (isst(i,j),j=1,89)
      end do

        do i=1,180
        do j=1,89
        if(isst(i,j).gt.-900) then
        rsst(i,j)=float(isst(i,j))/100.0
        else
        rsst(i,j)=-999.9
        endif
        enddo
        enddo

      write(61,rec=mon) rsst
      end do
      end do
   81 format (89i6)

      stop
      end
