Satellite Measurement of Sea Surface Temperature in the Presence of Volcanic Aerosols

Abstract

Simulation studies have shown that volcanic aerosols in the stratosphere, such as those produced by the eruption of El Chichón, significantly affect satellite measurements in the three AVHRR thermal window channels centered at 3.7, 11 and 12 ?m. In addition, multichannel sea surface temperature measurements (MCSST) provided by these different algorithms used for global mapping are shown to degrade at different rates as the aerosol concentration increases. Alternative multichannel sea surface temperature algorithms have been developed that are relatively insensitive to the stratospheric aerosol situations simulated in these studies. Verification of these results is obtained from actual satellite measurements made after the eruption of El Chichón in April 1982, which are compared with buoy measurements near Mauna Loa, Hawaii and in the Gulf of Mexico.