Estimation of the air temperature over the sea using the satellite data

  • Kwon B. H. (Dept. of Environmental Atmospheric Science, Pukyong National University) ;
  • Hong G. M. (Korea Global Atmosphere Watch Observatory, Meteorological Research Institute, Korea) ;
  • Kim Y. S. (Dept. of Satellite Information Science, Pukyong National University)
  • Published : 2005.10.01

Abstract

Due to the temporal and spatial simultaneity and the high-frequency repetition, the data set retrieved from the satellite observation is considered to be the most desirable ones for the study of air-sea interaction. With rapidly developing sensor technology, satellite-retrieved data has experienced improvement in the accuracy and the number of parameters. Nevertheless, since it is still impossible to directly measure the heat fluxes between air and sea, the bulk method is an exclusive way for the evaluation of the heat fluxes at the sea surface. It was noted that the large deviation of air temperature in the winter season by the linear regression despite good correlation coefficients. We propose a new algorithm based on the Fourier series with which the SST and the air temperature. We found that the mean of air temperature is a function of the mean of SST with the monthly gradient of SST inferred from the latitudinal variation of SST and the spectral energy of air temperature is related linearly to that of SST. An algorithm to obtain the air temperature over the sea was completed with a proper analysis on the relation between of air temperature and of SST. This algorithm was examined by buoy data and therefore the air temperature over the sea can be retrieved based on just satellite data.

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