Validation of Sentinel-3A SLSTR derived Sea-Surface Skin Temperatures with those of the shipborne M-AERI

• Published in: Remote sensing of environment Vol. 244; p. 111826
• Main Authors: Luo, Bingkun, Minnett, Peter J., Szczodrak, Malgorzata, Kilpatrick, Katherine, Izaguirre, Miguel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Elsevier Inc 01.07.2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Algorithms; Atmospheric correction; Climate prediction; Earth observations (from space); Error analysis; Interferometers; Land surface temperature; Oceanographic research; Oceans; Radiance; Satellite observation; Satellites; Sea surface temperature; Skin temperature; Surface temperature
• ISSN: 0034-4257; 1879-0704
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2020.111826

The Skin Sea-Surface Temperature (SSTskin) derived from satellite measurements is one of the critical factors for determining ocean-atmosphere interactions in climate prediction and ocean research. Sentinel-3A is a European Earth Observation satellite mission developed to support ocean, land, and atmospheric applications. We compare three years of SSTskin from the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) on board the Sentinel-3A satellite from July 2017–March 2019 with independent data from Marine-Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometers (M-AERIs) deployed on research cruises. The comparison results show an average difference of −0.098 K and Robust Standard Deviation of 0.296 K between SLSTR and M-AERI SSTskin values; the average value meets the pre-launch scientific objective of a mean accuracy <0.1 K. Differences between four SSTskin retrieval algorithms have been investigated, the results show that the Dual-view 3 channels night time algorithm (D3) is better than other algorithms. This study involves determining the error and uncertainty characteristics of the SST retrievals in terms of factors that influence the accuracies of the satellite SST's, and we hope this information will be useful to improve the SLSTR atmospheric correction algorithms. •1 validation of Sentinel-3A SLSTR derived Sea-Surface Skin Temperatures (SSTskin).•Using independent SSTskin data from M-AERI deployed on research cruises•The results indicate that SLSTR on Sentinel-3A provides accurate SSTskin fields.