Data Products  › Product & Algorithm › Caveats of Sea Surface Temperature product
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Caveats for the standard products

Caveats of Sea Surface Temperature product

Algorithm development PI: Dr. Akira Shibata
(JAXA Earth Observation Research and application Center)

This document briefly describes some caveats for the AMSR Level 2 standard products of sea surface temperature (SST).
Retrieval areas
Values of SST are retrieved over global oceans (except over sea ice) in this product. However, missing values are set to the areas of precipitation (greater than about 1mm/h), strong wind speed (greater than about 17m/s), coastal regions (within about 100km from coastlines), and sun-glitter (less than 25 degrees of relative angle made between the Sun and observing directions). All possible areas of sea ice are also excluded. Reason of the missing data is included as the quality flags in the product.

Retrieval range and error
Range of SST retrieval is between -2 and 35 degrees centigrade. Retrieval error was estimated within approximately 0.7 degrees centigrade (rms) by comparing to buoy SSTs obtained through the Global Telecommunication System (GTS). The comparison was made using the data of April and July 2003 (1-month data for each).