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A ten-year dataset of Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer-Sea Surface Temperature (AVHRR-SST) with 18-km space resolution and weekly frequency is used to study the seasonal variability of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea surface field. Three main objectives are addressed in this study. The first is to define the time and space scales of the surface temperature distributions. The second objective is to relate the SST features to the upper thermocline circulation and the third is to compare these features with the observational evidence of the Physical Oceanography of the Eastern Mediterranean (POEM) Programme. The time analysis reveals the presence of a strong seasonal signal characterized by two main seasonal extremes, winter and summer. The transition between the overall zonal distribution of the isotherms (winter) and the mostly meridional pattern of the fronts (summer) occurs very rapidly in May …