The Importance of Accurate Skin Temperature in Assimilating Radiances From Satellite Sounding Instruments

An error analysis has been performed, which shows that skin temperature errors are important for sounding channels. An approach for estimating skin temperature and emissivity errors from the dependence of differences between observed and calculated radiances on surface-to-space transmittance is desc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing 2008-02, Vol.46 (2), p.403-408
Main Author: English, S.J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Assimilation
Channels
Data assimilation
Emissivity
Error analysis
Errors
Estimates
Estimating
Ice surface
Instruments
Land surface
Ocean temperature
Offices
radiance
satellite
Satellites
Sea surface
Skin
Skin temperature
sounder
surface
temperature
Temperature dependence
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Summary:An error analysis has been performed, which shows that skin temperature errors are important for sounding channels. An approach for estimating skin temperature and emissivity errors from the dependence of differences between observed and calculated radiances on surface-to-space transmittance is described. Estimates of emissivity and skin temperature error for the operational Met Office data assimilation system are presented as an example, and the implications are discussed, in terms of use of data over different surfaces and in different conditions (e.g., day/night). The results highlight the need for a better emissivity estimate over sea ice than that used at the Met Office and the inaccuracy of the land surface skin temperature that was derived from radiative flux balance at the surface.
ISSN:0196-2892
1558-0644
DOI:10.1109/TGRS.2007.902413