Retrieval characteristics of non-linear sea surface temperature from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

Merchant, C. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4687-9850, Harris, A. R., Roquet, H. and Le Borgne, P. (2009) Retrieval characteristics of non-linear sea surface temperature from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer. Geophysical Research Letters, 36 (17). L17604. ISSN 0094-8276 doi: 10.1029/2009GL039843

Abstract/Summary

Criteria are proposed for evaluating sea surface temperature (SST) retrieved from satellite infra-red imagery: bias should be small on regional scales; sensitivity to atmospheric humidity should be small; and sensitivity of retrieved SST to surface temperature should be close to 1 K K−1. Their application is illustrated for non-linear sea surface temperature (NLSST) estimates. 233929 observations from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on Metop-A are matched with in situ data and numerical weather prediction (NWP) fields. NLSST coefficients derived from these matches have regional biases from −0.5 to +0.3 K. Using radiative transfer modelling we find that a 10% increase in humidity alone can change the retrieved NLSST by between −0.5 K and +0.1 K. A 1 K increase in SST changes NLSST by <0.5 K in extreme cases. The validity of estimates of sensitivity by radiative transfer modelling is confirmed empirically.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/33707
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	No Reading authors. Back catalogue items Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Uncontrolled Keywords	sea surface temperature; AVHRR ocean pathfinder
Publisher	American Geophysical Union
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