Sea Surface Temperature Daytime Climate Analyses Derived from Aerosol Bias-Corrected Satellite Data

Abstract

Abstract This paper describes daytime sea surface temperature (SST) climate analyses derived from 16 years (1985–2000) of reprocessed Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Pathfinder Atmospheres (PATMOS) multichannel radiometric data. Two satellite bias correction methods are employed: the first being an aerosol correction, the second being an in situ correction of satellite biases. The aerosol bias correction is derived from observed statistical relationships between the slant-path aerosol optical depth and AVHRR multichannel SST (MCSST) depressions for elevated levels of tropospheric and stratospheric aerosol. Weekly analyses of SST are produced on a 1° equal-angle grid using optimum interpolation (OI) methodology. Four separate OI analyses are derived based on 1) MCSST without satellite bias correction, 2) MCSST with aerosol satellite bias correction, 3) MCSST with in situ correction of satellite biases, and 4) MCSST with both aerosol and in situ corrections of satellite biases. These analyses are compared against the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager OI SST, along with the extended reconstruction SST in situ analysis product. The OI analysis 1 exhibits significant negative and positive biases. Analysis 2, derived exclusively from satellite data, reduces globally the negative bias associated with elevated atmospheric aerosol, and subsequently reveals pronounced variations in diurnal warming consistent with recently published works. Analyses 3 and 4, derived from in situ correction of satellite biases, alleviate biases (positive and negative) associated with both aerosol and diurnal warming, and also reduce the dispersion. The PATMOS OISST 1985–2000 daytime climate analyses presented here provide a high-resolution (1° weekly) empirical database for studying seasonal and interannual climate processes.