He, R.; Helber, R.W.; Weisberg, R.H.; Zhang, H.; Muller-Karger, F.; Merging Multiple Satellite Sea Surface Temperature Products: A Near-Real-Time Cloud-Free, Sea Surface Temperature Analysis For The Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean, AGU 2004 Ocean Sciences Meeting, Portland, Oregon

Abstract

Clouds are problematic in using Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) imagery for describing sea surface temperature (SST). GOES provides greater coverage than AVHRR because it is geostationary, but has 6km resolution relative to 1km resolution for AVHRR. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Microwave Imager (TMI) observes SST through clouds, providing daily, 1/4 degree maps under all weather conditions except rain.

A TMI limitation, however, is course resolution. Optimal interpolation (OI) is used to generate a cloud-free, 5-km, daily SST analysis for the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System (SEACOOS) domain by merging the high-resolution (cloud-covered) AVHRR and GOES with coarse-resolution (cloud-free) TMI SST products. Comparisons with in-situ data show good agreements. Given large spatial gradients by coastal ocean processes, this near-real-time regional analysis has advantage over the global, weekly, 1 degree Reynolds SST. Future application of this analysis may include testing hypotheses on interaction between physical and biological processes in SEACOOS domain, and constraining the net surface heat flux boundary condition for coastal nowcast/forecast models.

Citation

He, R.; Helber, R.W.; Weisberg, R.H.; Zhang, H.; Muller-Karger, F.; Merging Multiple Satellite Sea Surface Temperature Products: A Near-Real-Time Cloud-Free, Sea Surface Temperature Analysis For The Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean, AGU 2004 Ocean Sciences Meeting, Portland, Oregon

For more information, see the SEACOOS Observing Working Group.