Sea-surface temperature from Suomi-NPP VIIRS: Algorithm development and uncertainty estimation

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi-NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership) satellite is the first of a new series of imaging radiometers on polar-orbiting earth-observation satellites. In addition to providing real-time data for weather and ocean forecasting, VIIRS is intended to continue the measurements of MODIS (MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), including contributing to the Climate Data Record of Sea-Surface Temperature (SST). To achieve this objective requires a thorough assessment of the errors and uncertainties in the VIIRS SST retrievals. The results of comparisons with a range of independent measurements of SST indicate that the VIIRS SSTs have equal or better accuracies than those of the MODIS’s on Terra and Aqua, and that the VIIRS SSTs are suitable to extend the satellite-derived Climate Data Records of SST into the future.