Two new high resolution sea surface temperature (SST)
analysis products have been developed using optimum interpolation (OI).
The analyses have a spatial grid resolution of 0.25 degree and temporal
resolution of 1 day. One product uses Advanced Very High Resolution
Radiometer (AVHRR) infrared satellite SST data. The other uses AVHRR
and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) on the NASA Earth
Observing System satellite SST data. Both products also use in situ
data from ships and buoys and include a large-scale adjustment of
satellite biases with respect to the in situ data. Because of AMSR's
near all-weather coverage, there is an increase in OI signal variance
when AMSR is added to AVHRR. Thus, two products are needed to avoid an
analysis variance jump when AMSR became available in June 2002. Daily
error fields are also produced which include bias, sampling and random
errors.
The AVHRR-only product uses Pathfinder AVHRR data (currently available
from January 1985 through December 2006) and operational AVHRR data for
2007 onwards. Pathfinder AVHRR was chosen over operational AVHRR, when
available, because Pathfinder agrees better with the in situ data. The
AMSR&AVHRR product begins with the start of AMSR data in June
2002. In this product, the primary AVHRR contribution is in regions
near land where AMSR is not available. However, in cloud-free regions,
use of both infrared and microwave instruments can reduce systematic
biases because their error characteristics are independent.
The latest version (version 2) has several improvements. These
improvements include the use of 3 days of satellite and in situ data
instead of 1 to reduce the day-to-day noise. This version also smoothes
the 7-day satellite bias correction to reduce a strong 7-day period in
the original bias correction. In addition, version 2 includes a step to
reduce ship SST biases with respect to buoy SSTs. Justification for the
version 2 changes are discussed. The daily OI analyses are further
evaluated by intercomparisons. Results show that recent Pathfinder
AVHRR gradients are lower than operational Navy AVHRR gradients. In
addition, comparisons with analyses from other centers show that
increasing the spatial grid resolution does not always increase the
analysis resolution. Many users may not understand the difference
between grid resolution and analysis resolution.