Retrieval of sea surface temperatue from FY-3A VIRR data

Abstract

FENGYUN-3A (FY-3A) is the second generation polar-orbiting meteorological satellite of China which was launched on May, 7, 2008. The Visible infrared scanning radiometer (VIRR) onboard FY-3A has 10 1-km resolution channels, with infrared split-window channels for sea surface temperature (SST) observations. FY-3A VIRR SST products are distributed by the National satellite Meteorological Center (NSMC), China Meteorological Administration (CMA). The comparisons between buoy SST and FY-3A SST products show that the bias and standard deviation are −0.59K and 1.31K respectively. In order to obtain more accurate SST from FY-3A VIRR data, new SST retrieval coefficients of the Multi-channel SST (MCSST) algorithm were generated using the matchups of VIRR bright temperature (BT) and buoy SST in 2009 and 2010. Two years FY-3A level-1 data were processed with MCSST algorithm and cloud detection. The bias and standard deviation between buoy SST and new VIRR split-window are −0.01K and 0.75K for daytime and for nighttime, are −0.04K and 0.72K. The results show that it is promising to retrieve high quality SST products from VIRR data.