Comparison of Suomi NPP VIIRS SST Product with Shipboard Skin SST Measurements in the Northwest Pacific

摘要

Sea surface temperature (SST) is used as a key variable in numerical weather prediction and in global climate modeling. There are many sensors in orbit with the capacity of observing SST nowadays. To meeting the requirement of the climate data record of SST data, it is important to collect in situ sea surface skin temperature (SST_skin) measurements for the validation of satellite SST products. Several radiometers for in situ SST_skin measurements have been developed. The infrared SST autonomous radiometer (ISAR) is a self-calibrating instrument with an accuracy of 0.1 K. An ISAR has been deployed on the research vessel Dong Fang Hong II of Ocean University of China since 2009. 7 cruises ISAR data were used to validate Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Level 2P SST product in the northwest Pacific. The comparison results show positive bias of 0.14K and standard deviation of 0.30K in total number of 853 match-ups. Further study will be carried out to analyze how different factors influence the comparison.