TY - JOUR
T1 - Half a century of satellite remote sensing of sea-surface temperature
AU - Minnett, P. J.
AU - Alvera-Azcárate, A.
AU - Chin, T. M.
AU - Corlett, G. K.
AU - Gentemann, C. L.
AU - Karagali, I.
AU - Li, X.
AU - Marsouin, A.
AU - Marullo, S.
AU - Maturi, E.
AU - Santoleri, R.
AU - Saux Picart, S.
AU - Steele, M.
AU - Vazquez-Cuervo, J.
N1 - Funding Information:
PJM acknowledges support from the NASA Physical Oceanography Program. The contributions by TMC and JV to this paper were carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). MAS acknowledges support from ONR N00014-17-1-2545, NSF OPP-1751363, and NASA 80NSSC18K0837. IK is supported by the Copernicus & Mercator-Ocean through the Service Evolution Call 2 project DIVOST-COM. The authors thank Dr. C. J. Merchant for providing a preprint of the paper (Merchant et al. 2019) to support the description (in Section 5.1.2) of the generation of the AVHRR time series of consistent SSTs. Authors affiliated with NOAA state that their views, opinions, and findings contained in this paper are their own and should not be construed as an official NOAA or U.S. Government position, policy, or decision. Apologies to those whose work was not included here, even though it may have made a significant contribution to the progress in the field, but were simply a casualty of limited space. The authors acknowledge with thanks the suggestions and comments from three reviewers as these have resulted in an improved paper. None.
Funding Information:
PJM acknowledges support from the NASA Physical Oceanography Program. The contributions by TMC and JV to this paper were carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). MAS acknowledges support from ONR N00014-17-1-2545 , NSF OPP-1751363 , and NASA 80NSSC18K0837 . IK is supported by the Copernicus & Mercator-Ocean through the Service Evolution Call 2 project DIVOST-COM.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Authors
PY - 2019/11
Y1 - 2019/11
N2 - Sea-surface temperature (SST) was one of the first ocean variables to be studied from earth observation satellites. Pioneering images from infrared scanning radiometers revealed the complexity of the surface temperature fields, but these were derived from radiance measurements at orbital heights and included the effects of the intervening atmosphere. Corrections for the effects of the atmosphere to make quantitative estimates of the SST became possible when radiometers with multiple infrared channels were deployed in 1979. At the same time, imaging microwave radiometers with SST capabilities were also flown. Since then, SST has been derived from infrared and microwave radiometers on polar orbiting satellites and from infrared radiometers on geostationary spacecraft. As the performances of satellite radiometers and SST retrieval algorithms improved, accurate, global, high resolution, frequently sampled SST fields became fundamental to many research and operational activities. Here we provide an overview of the physics of the derivation of SST and the history of the development of satellite instruments over half a century. As demonstrated accuracies increased, they stimulated scientific research into the oceans, the coupled ocean-atmosphere system and the climate. We provide brief overviews of the development of some applications, including the feasibility of generating Climate Data Records. We summarize the important role of the Group for High Resolution SST (GHRSST) in providing a forum for scientists and operational practitioners to discuss problems and results, and to help coordinate activities world-wide, including alignment of data formatting and protocols and research. The challenges of burgeoning data volumes, data distribution and analysis have benefited from simultaneous progress in computing power, high capacity storage, and communications over the Internet, so we summarize the development and current capabilities of data archives. We conclude with an outlook of developments anticipated in the next decade or so.
AB - Sea-surface temperature (SST) was one of the first ocean variables to be studied from earth observation satellites. Pioneering images from infrared scanning radiometers revealed the complexity of the surface temperature fields, but these were derived from radiance measurements at orbital heights and included the effects of the intervening atmosphere. Corrections for the effects of the atmosphere to make quantitative estimates of the SST became possible when radiometers with multiple infrared channels were deployed in 1979. At the same time, imaging microwave radiometers with SST capabilities were also flown. Since then, SST has been derived from infrared and microwave radiometers on polar orbiting satellites and from infrared radiometers on geostationary spacecraft. As the performances of satellite radiometers and SST retrieval algorithms improved, accurate, global, high resolution, frequently sampled SST fields became fundamental to many research and operational activities. Here we provide an overview of the physics of the derivation of SST and the history of the development of satellite instruments over half a century. As demonstrated accuracies increased, they stimulated scientific research into the oceans, the coupled ocean-atmosphere system and the climate. We provide brief overviews of the development of some applications, including the feasibility of generating Climate Data Records. We summarize the important role of the Group for High Resolution SST (GHRSST) in providing a forum for scientists and operational practitioners to discuss problems and results, and to help coordinate activities world-wide, including alignment of data formatting and protocols and research. The challenges of burgeoning data volumes, data distribution and analysis have benefited from simultaneous progress in computing power, high capacity storage, and communications over the Internet, so we summarize the development and current capabilities of data archives. We conclude with an outlook of developments anticipated in the next decade or so.
KW - Fifty year review
KW - Sea surface temperature
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071617505&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.rse.2019.111366
DO - 10.1016/j.rse.2019.111366
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85071617505
VL - 233
JO - Remote Sensing of Environment
JF - Remote Sensing of Environment
SN - 0034-4257
M1 - 111366
ER -