Remote Sens. 2015, 7(12), 17258-17271; doi:10.3390/rs71215880
Validation of the Suomi NPP VIIRS Ice Surface Temperature Environmental Data Record
1
Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1225 West Dayton St., Madison, WI 53706, USA
2
NOAA/NESDIS, 1225 West Dayton St., Madison, WI 53706, USA
3
Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
4
Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, Redondo Beach, CA 90278, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Changyong Cao, Magaly Koch and Prasad Thenkabail
Received: 28 October 2015 / Revised: 3 December 2015 / Accepted: 11 December 2015 / Published: 18 December 2015
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Calibration/Validation of Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometers and Applications)
Abstract
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. View Full-Text
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
Scifeed alert for new publications
Never miss any articles matching your research from any publisher- Get alerts for new papers matching your research
- Find out the new papers from selected authors
- Updated daily for 49'000+ journals and 6000+ publishers
- Define your Scifeed now
Share & Cite This Article
MDPI and ACS Style
Liu, Y.; Key, J.; Tschudi, M.; Dworak, R.; Mahoney, R.; Baldwin, D. Validation of the Suomi NPP VIIRS Ice Surface Temperature Environmental Data Record. Remote Sens. 2015, 7, 17258-17271.
Related Articles
Article Metrics
Comments
[Return to top]
Remote Sens.
EISSN 2072-4292
Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland
RSS
E-Mail Table of Contents Alert