Evaluation of Sea Surface Temperature from HY-1C Data

The daily-composited 9 km sea surface temperature (SST) data from the 10-band Chinese Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner (COCTS) onboard the Haiyang-1C (hy -1C) satellite are evaluated for global area against daily 9 km SST product from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Terra satellite and in situ data. Around four months of the data are used for the validation from Jun. 18, 2019 to Jan. 9, 2020. The in situ SST data are averaged at a spatial resolution of 9 km which is similar to that of the COCTS and MODIS SST data. For daytime, the bias, standard deviation (STD) and robust standard deviation (RSD) of the SST difference between COCTS and buoy data are -0.31 °C, 1.09°C and 0.66°C. And the bias, standard deviation and RSD of the SST difference between COCTS and MODIS data are -0.14°C, 0.95°C and 0.60°. The error sources are discussed. The results indicate that studies should focus on error sources to improve the HY-1C/COCTS SST products accuracy.