Retrieval of sea surface temperature from TRMM VIRS

The Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS) aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a five-channel radiometer with wavelength from 0.6 to 12 mum. Daily 0.125degrees sea surface temperature (SST) data from VIRS were first produced at the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) for comparison with SST from TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI). In order to obtain accurate high spatial resolution SST for the merging of SST from infrared and microwave measurements, new SST retrieval coefficients of the Multichannel SST (MCSST) algorithm were generated using the global matchups from VIRS brightness temperature (BT) and Global Telecommunications System (GTS) SST. Cloud detection was improved and striping noise was eliminated. One-year global VIRS level-1B data were reprocessed using the MCSST algorithm and the advanced cloud/noise treatments. The bias and standard deviation between VIRS split-window SST and in situ SST are 0.10degreesC and 0.63degreesC, and for triple-window SST, are 0.06degreesC and 0.48degreesC. The results indicate that the reprocessing algorithm is capable of retrieving high quality SST from VIRS data.