A quasi-physical sea surface temperature method for the split-window data from the Second-generation Global Imager (SGLI) onboard the Global Change Observation Mission-Climate (GCOM-C) satellite

Abstract This paper describes a quasi-physical method (the Q-method) for determining the sea surface temperatures (SSTs). The Q-method is a coefficient-based technique developed for processing the multiband infrared (IR) data of the geostationary Himawari-8 satellite. We applied the Q-method to the split-window data from the Second-generation Global Imager (SGLI) onboard the Global Change Observation Mission-Climate (GCOM-C) satellite. A comparison of the determined SGLI SSTs and buoy data shows a bias with a robust standard deviation of −0.097 K and 0.28 K in the daytime and −0.18 K and 0.28 K at night, respectively. Meanwhile, high biases of nearly −0.5 K were calculated for SSTs at and around 305 K. A residuals analysis suggests that the high negative bias is caused by insufficient information on the atmospheric correction brought by split-window data. This paper discusses the physical and mathematical background of the Q-method and compares it with another coefficient-based physical scheme.