Sea-surface temperature measured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the NASA Earth Observing System satellites Terra and Aqua include infrared bands that are designed for the accurate measurement of sea-surface temperature (SST). In addition to the conventional ´split-window´ bands in the 10-12 μm atmospheric window (similar in spectral properties to the corresponding channels of the heritage instrument, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)) the MODIS also has three bands in the 3.5 to 4.2 μm interval for SST measurement. We present a validation of the MODIS SSTs, derived from the conventional measurements at the 10-12 μm window, by comparison with radiometrically-derived skin temperatures from ships, and with bulk measurements from buoys. These show the MODIS SSTs are comparable in accuracy to the AVHRR Pathfinder SST fields.