comparative assessment of satellite-derived Adriatic Sea surface temperature

• Published in: International journal of remote sensing Vol. 32; no. 17; pp. 4871 - 4892
• Main Authors: Tomažić, I, Kuzmić, M, Notarstefano, G, Mauri, E, Poulain, P.M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis 01.01.2011
• Subjects: Adriatic Sea; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied geophysics; Assessments; Biological and medical sciences; data collection; Daytime; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects. Techniques; image analysis; Infrared; Internal geophysics; Marine; moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer; Satellites; Sea surface temperature; seasonal variation; Standard deviation; surface temperature; Teledetection and vegetation maps; Vapour; water vapor; wind; Adriatic Sea; East Mediterranean; Mediterranean Sea; MED, Adriatic Sea; atmosphere; algorithms; data; Night; exhibits; measurement sensor; platforms; Result; evaluation; Hyperspectral imaging sensor; 2004; 2003; high resolution; satellites; Small; Time series; Sea surface temperature; analysis; in situ; Filter; Day; seasonal variations; Comparative study; standard deviation; Radiometer
• ISSN: 1366-5901; 0143-1161; 1366-5901
• DOI: 10.1080/01431161.2010.492249

In this article, five Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and four Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS)-based Adriatic-focused satellite sea surface temperature (SST) products are analysed and compared with two sets of in situ SST measurements: a drifter-based dataset collected in 2003, and a platform-based dataset gathered in 2004; an additional set was used to validate the new SST coefficients. Analysis of satellite minus in situ SST residuals shows similar results for both in situ datasets, with the differences being within 0.2 K. All daytime SST biases exhibited positive values (less than 0.5 K). Night-time biases for short-wave infrared (IR) algorithms exhibited near zero and small negative values with an exceptionally low standard deviation (about 0.3 K) regardless of the sensor used. Analysis of filtered residual time-series allowed direct comparison between different SST products. The seasonal change in the daytime biases was found to covary with similar changes in atmospheric water vapour and the Adriatic specific wind regime.