Validation of Sea Surface Temperature from HY-1D Data

The Chinese Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner (COCTS), as one of the key payloads onboard the Haiyang-1D (HY-1D) satellite, has infrared channels for global sea surface temperature (SST) monitoring. In this paper, a cross-comparison for the COCTS onboard HY-1D, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard Aqua and iQuam data is applied for the SST validation. The results of the difference between COCTS and in-situ SST show a bias of -2.16°C, a standard deviation of 1.04°C, a median of -2.15°C and a robust standard deviation of 1.21°C for daytime, a bias of a -2.48°C, a standard deviation of 0.92°C, a median of -2.48°C and a robust standard deviation of 1.09°C for nighttime. And the results of the difference between COCTS and MODIS demonstrate a bias of -2.18°C, a standard deviation of 0.88°C, a median of -2.13°C and a robust standard deviation of 1.03°C. The results show that the COCTS shows a cooler SST than in-situ and MODIS SST. The sensor performance, cloud detection failure and the SST algorithms could contribute to the obvious errors. In future, more work should focus on the sensor performance and the SST algorithms to improve the HY-1D SST products accuracy.