Type of change: Discontinue production of this product on September 1, 2013.
Note: The replacement product at 5 km grid spacing is currently in production (operational May 2012).An SST analysis incorporating satellite-borne instruments is a true global analysis. Each instrument has its own strengths and weaknesses, depending on the sensor type, platform, orbit, etc. The production of an accurate SST depends on merging the data from these sources and accounting for the differing measurement methods and accuracies while maintaining as much of the information in the observations as possible to capture the best of each sensor.The product to be discontinued is a daily SST analysis (operational June 2008) that combines Geostationary (GOES-E/W, MT-SAT and Meteosat) SST and POES and Metop (AVHRR) SSTs into a single high-resolution (0.1°x0.1°) product.
This original resolution was chosen to approximately match the Nyquist sampling criterion for the mid-latitude Rossby radius (~20 km) to ensure the preservation of mesoscale oceanographic features such as eddies and frontal meanders. The methodology employs a rigorous multi-scale optimal interpolation which approximates the Kalman filter, together with a data-adaptive correlation length scale to ensure the balance between detail preservation and noise reduction. The analysis has proven a significant success, even when compared to other products which purport to be of similar or higher resolution.The 11km blended SST product can be replaced with the higher resolution product which uses the same multi-scale optimum interpolation technique cited above. The replacement product is at 5km (1/20 degree) grid spacing.
The point of contact is John Snapper, john.sapper@noaa.gov. Send comments to John Snapper, john.sapper@noaa.gov.