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Retrieval characteristics of non‐linear sea surface temperature from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
Author(s) -
Merchant C. J.,
Harris A. R.,
Roquet H.,
Le Borgne P.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2009gl039843
Subject(s) - advanced very high resolution radiometer , environmental science , sea surface temperature , radiative transfer , radiometer , satellite , atmospheric radiative transfer codes , remote sensing , radiometry , sensitivity (control systems) , climatology , humidity , relative humidity , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , geology , physics , optics , engineering , astronomy , electronic engineering
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.