Validation of the Suomi NPP VIIRS Ice Surface Temperature Environmental Data Record

Continuous monitoring of the surface temperature is critical to understanding and forecasting Arctic climate change as surface temperature integrates changes in the surface energy budget. The sea-ice surface temperature (IST) has been measured with optical and thermal infrared sensors for many years...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Remote Sensing
Main Authors: Yinghui Liu, Jeffrey Key, Mark Tschudi, Richard Dworak, Robert Mahoney, Daniel Baldwin
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2015
Subjects:
Suomi NPP
ice surface temperature
Environmental Data Record
calibration and validation
Arctic
Climate change
Sea ice
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/rs71215880
Description
Summary:Continuous monitoring of the surface temperature is critical to understanding and forecasting Arctic climate change as surface temperature integrates changes in the surface energy budget. The sea-ice surface temperature (IST) has been measured with optical and thermal infrared sensors for many years. With the IST Environmental Data Record (EDR) available from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) and future Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites we can continue to monitor and investigate Arctic climate change. This work examines the quality of the VIIRS IST EDR. Validation is performed through comparisons with multiple datasets including NASA IceBridge measurements air temperature from Arctic drifting ice buoys Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) IST MODIS IST simultaneous nadir overpass (SNO) and surface air temperature from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) reanalysis. Results show biases of −0.34 −0.12 0.16 −3.20 and −3.41 K compared to an aircraft-mounted downward-looking pyrometer MODIS MODIS SNO drifting buoy and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis respectively root-mean-square errors of 0.98 1.02 0.95 4.89 and 6.94 K and root-mean-square errors with the bias removed of 0.92 1.01 0.94 3.70 and 6.04 K. Based on the IceBridge and MODIS results the VIIRS IST uncertainty (RMSE) meets or exceeds the JPSS system requirement of 1.0 K. The product can therefore be considered useful for meteorological and climatological applications.

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