HOAPS-3: Improved climatology of the global ocean water cycle parameters derived from SSM/I satellite data

• Main Authors: Andersson, A., Klepp, C., Bakan, S., Fennig, K., Grassl, H., Schulz, J.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0006-3BBB-6; http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0006-3BBD-4

HOAPS-3, the third version of the "Hamburg Ocean Atmosphere Parameters and Fluxes from Satellite Data" climatology of precipitation and evaporation over the global ice-free ocean between 1987 and 2005, has recently been released and is freely available from www.hoaps.org. The climatology is entirely satellite-based. All variables are derived from SSM/I passive microwave radiometers, except for the SST, which is included from the completely reprocessed AVHRR based NODC/RSMAS Pathfinder SST V5 data set. Multi-satellite averages, inter-sensor calibration, and an efficient sea ice detection procedure lead to a homogeneous time series of now more than 18 years. A newly derived neural network based precipitation algorithm together with the evaporation leads to an improved global freshwater balance, which now is in much better agreement with GRDS runoff-data results than previous versions. This paper will give an introduction to the HOAPS climatology, will cover validation evidence from other surface and satellite based data products and NWP data, and discuss the use of an alternative SST dataset.