REMOTE SENSING OF OCEAN TEMPERATURES/SST

History of Sea Surface Temperature measurement

Current Satellites/ Instruments Limitations

ApplicationsRemote Sensing - the

next 10 years

By Stuart Milburn and Robyn Stevens

Remote Sensors love Acronyms

SR ESA HRPTVHRR GEO

MCSST AVHRR NOAAICOADS MODIS NOPP

NEMS SMMR NASASSM/I AMSR GODAE

CrIMSSGHRSST-PP TRMM

GHRSST- RAN TMI FOAM REMSS MISST

POES GOES

Sampling of SST from Ships

• Long established record

• Reliable data since about 1870

• Less data now than previously

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~jmaurer/sst/ ttp://dss.ucar.edu/datasets/ds540.0/docs/WMO-Pub47_jtech07-1.pdf

Buoys/Drifters/Gliders

DRIFTER

+ Sampling usually taken at a known Depth e.g. SST-1m+ Sub-surface sampling- Limited amount of data able to be collected.- Low resolution. Global Drifter Surface Buoy Array ~ 5’ Resolution

Global Tropical Moored Buoy Network

ARGO Floatshttp://www-argo.ucsd.edu/http://www2.hawaii.edu/~jmaurer/sst/

Thermal Infrared SST Instruments

SR , VHRR on INSAT3-M MODIS on TERRA, AQUA ATSR on ERS-2 GOES Imager AATSR on ENVISAT AVHRR on NOAA series and

ESA MetOP-A

Scan at IR wavelengths...

+ Good Resolution (~1km) + Accurate Results + Long Dataset - Obscured by Cloud

NOAA 12 14 16

http://sst-remote-sensing.wikispaces.com/

Passive Microwave SST Instruments

SMMR on Nimbus-7, SeaSat

TMI on TRMM AMSR on EOS-PMI CRIMSS

+ Can see through cloud

- Not as accurate or as fine resolution as IR

CRiMSS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moderate-Resolution_Imaging_Spectroradiometer

Limitations to remote Sensing Ocean Temperatures

SST measured at different levels

Skin Layer Diurnally heated

Evaporation Radiometer Noise Incidence angle Radio Interference Wind forcing alters

SST measured Night Day

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~jmaurer/sst/

Data Availability Archiving websites Data available graphically Near real time data GHRSST: 6 hour delay NOAA has data from 1981 to

present, Oceanwatch NASA provides data from

MODIS since 2000 WASTAC (West Australian

Satellite Technology and Applications Consortium)

http://www.wastac.wa.gov.au/

Global Images

http://bcc.cma.gov.cn/Website/index.php?ChannelID=2&NewsID=173

Australia and EACBureau of Meteorology uses the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on board the NOAA series of polar orbiting satellites to derive SSTs for the Australian region

http://www.bom.gov.au

http://www.cmar.csiro.au/remotesensing /oceancurrents/SNSW/latest.html

Applications

Meteorological Forecasting

Climate Models ENSO Forecasting Ocean Forecasting Coral Bleaching

Fishing Currents Research and

Development

http://www.nodc.noaa.gov

What is the Future? New methods blending thermal IR and passive

microwave satellite measurement and improvements with correlating these to in situ SST measurements (with QC)

Improved in situ SST “Ground Truth” Better SST products through better

algorithms/longer dataset/improved instruments Scientific/International/Australian Collaborations

– e.g. BMRC, CSIRO and Universities through ACCESS. Bluelink from BOM

New and improved Acronyms IOCI, SEACI, POAMAMDGSST, GHRSST-RAN, MISST, NPOESS, VIIRS, CrIMSS