NOAA-11 and 12 AVHRR HRPT data are available upon request, MCSST and SMSST and ERS-1 ASST maps available from the University of Colorado, Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research, at http://ccar.colorado.edu/. NOAA-11 and 12 ... AVHRR HRPT and LAC data are available from the US Geological Survey via telnet to glis.cr.usgs.gov. SST analyses are available from the National Center for Atmospheric Research via anonymous ftp from ncardata.ucar.edu.
TOGA COARE was a multidisciplinary, international research effort that investigated the scientific phenomena associated with the interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean in the warm pool region of the western Pacific. The field experiment phase of the program took place from 1 November 1992 through 28 February 1993 and involved the deployment of oceanographic ships and buoys, several ship and land based Doppler radars, multiple low and high level aircraft equipped with Doppler radar and other airborne sensors, as well as a variety of surface based instruments for in situ observations.
1) NOAA-11/NOAA-12 AVHRR
AVHRR: The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) is a five channel scanning radiometer that was installed on the NOAA 11 and 12 Polar Orbiting satellites. The radiometer provides day and night imaging in the Visible (VIS) and Infrared (IR), sea surface temperature determination, estimation of heat budget components and identification of snow and sea-ice. The near-IR channel (channel 3: 3.55-3.99 um) and the two IR channels (channel 4: 10.2-11.5 um; and 5: 11.5-12.5 um) are used to compute SST.
HRPT: Full resolution images for all bands, with a nadir field of view of 1.1 km, digitized to 10-bit precision, and corrected for panoramic distortion, are globally broadcasted as direct readout at VHF and S-band frequencies to local users. This real-time transmission is called HRPT (High Resolution Picture Transmission).
LAC: In addition to the HRPT mode, about ten minutes of high-resolution data per orbit may be selectively recorded over any portion of the world as selected by NOAA/NESDIS on board the satellite. These data are then transmitted for playback to the NOAA central processing facility at Suitland, Maryland, through the Fairbanks and Wallops Command Data Acquisition (CDA) stations. These recorded data are referred to as LAC (Local Area Coverage) data.
GAC: The full resolution data are also processed onboard the satellite into low resolution, 4km GAC (Global Area Coverage) data, which is recorded only for readout by CDA stations. GAC data contains only one out of three original AVHRR lines and the data volume and resolution are further reduced by averaging every four adjacent samples and skipping the fifth sample along the scan line. Low-resolution images are also broadcasted using a weather fax format, permitting reception with inexpensive receivers and omnidirectional NOAA.
The following AVHRR data are available for the TOGA COARE Period:
a) AVHRR LAC and HRPT Data (1 km resolution) - U.S. Geological Survey
The USGS provides researchers with an on-line data inventory system which, for AVHRR data, also allows users to preview or browse images via an X-window application. Text-based queries only, with no browsing are also provided (for those without x-windows capabilities). Access is via telnet to xglis.cr.usgs.gov (x-window) or glis.cr.usgs.gov (text-based).
b) AVHRR HRPT Data - University of Colorado
These data are available upon request from Andrew Wobido at CU.
b1. Raw AVHRR HRPT data as received at Townsville, Australia.
b2. Calibrated full pass HRPT data.
Use of standard CCAR NES-107 based calibration algorithm. For further information contact Dan Baldwin at CCAR.
b3. Calibrated and navigated full-pass HRPT data.
Navigation was performed per routines detailed in Baldwin et al. (in press). These data have individual channel brightness temperatures, satellite elevation, solar zenith angle, etc. Data are available on both the 4 km and 1 km level.
c) MCSST Image Maps - University of Colorado
Multi-channel sea surface temperature (MCSST) maps are located in the anonymous ftp area of bilbo.colorado.edu in subdirectory /pub/coare/mcsst.
These images were processed using standard NOAA MCSST algorithms that were derived from comparisons between satellite infrared measurements and in-situ SST data from drifting buoys to correct for water vapor absorption.
d) SMSST Image Maps - University of Colorado
Satellite-measured skin surface temperature maps (SMSST) are located in the anonymous ftp area of bilbo.colorado.edu in subdirectory /pub/coare/smsst.
These are 4 km and 1 km raster images (1024x512) in Unix compressed format. The three directories (10day, 14day, and monthly) contain composite SMSST maps for the TOGA COARE region of 10N to 10S and 140E to 180E. SMSST was calculated for nighttime passes (9pm to 9am). Map sizes are 4096 2048 (2-byte) navigated to a 1 km resolution. and 1024 512 (2-byte) navigated to a 4 km resolution.
The SMSST algorithm used is as follows: ---------------------- smsst = a1 + a2*t4 + a3*(t4-t5) + a4*(t4-t5)*(sec(zen)-1)
For more information contact Andrew Wobido at wobido@frodo.colorado.edu.
e) Annual Mean Skin SST Image obtained from AVHRR GAC data - University of Colorado
An image showing the annual mean of Skin SST for the period 09/01/92 to 08/27/93 is available from tcdm.coare.ucar.edu in subdirectory air_sea_fluxes/Skin_Mean. The aereal coverage is 15 S to 25 N and 120 E to 160 W (200 E in the image). The original resolution of the image is 5 km (AVHRR GAC data), but reduced to about 20 km in this gif format image. The original resolution image can be posted if requested.
The GAC data were provided by NCAR (for 92's and early 93's) and GSFC (rest of 93's). First 10-day composites of the Skin SST, MCSST NLSST were done with a combined cloud filter of dynamic threshold and band (latitude) threshold method. The 4 sigma method was used for further cloud filtering after the 10-day composite. Interpolation was then applied on the composite SST data. Mean SSTs were computed from these 36 10-day composite results.
Results from the Skin SST, MCSST and NLSST show almost the same pattern of SST in both the individual 10-day composite data and the annual mean SST, with some differences in absolute value.
For more information contact YU Yunyue at yuy@frodo.colorado.edu.
2) ERS-1 ATSR - University of Colorado
ATSR: The Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) is a four channel, dual view, self calibrating infrared radiometer installed onboard the European Space Agency's (ESA) European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-1) . The instrument's design allows the global measurement of sea surface temperature to an accuracy of +/- 0.3 K. The ATSR channels are at wavelengths of 1.6 um (visible) and three thermal bands at 3.7 um, 11 um, and 12 um.
Low resolution, spatially-averaged Sea Surface Temperature (ASST) composites at a resolution of half a degree is available via anonymous ftp from bilbo.colorado.edu in subdirectory pub/coare/atsr. Map sizes are 720. The Nadir directory contains 1992 and 1993 images of Nadir-Only, the Dual directory contains Dual-only spatially- averaged sea surface temperature for the same time period.
For more information contact Andrew Wobido at wobido@frodo.colorado.edu
3) Global SST Analyses
Richard Reynolds and Diane Stokes from the Coupled Model Project at the National Meteorological Center (NMC), have provided global SST analyses. The optimum interpolation (OI) sea surface temperature (SST) analysis is produced weekly on a one degree grid. The analysis uses in situ and satellite SST plus SST's simulated by sea-ice cover. Before the analysis is computed, the satellite data is adjusted for biases using the method of described by Reynolds (1988) and Reynolds and Marsico (1993). A description of the analysis can be found in Reynolds and Smith (1993). The dataset begins in 1985 and presently extends through July 1993.
Special TOGA COARE IOP time subsets (9/1992-5/1993) of this dataset are available via anonymous ftp from ncardata.ucar.edu in subdirectory toga_coare/ocean. This directory contains a README file that has a description of each data, format, and access program file in the directory.
For more information contact Steve Worley at worley@ncar.ucar.edu.
Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research
University of Colorado
P.O. Box 431
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Boulder
Province or State:
CO
Postal Code:
80309
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USA
Publications/References
Baldwin, D., Rosborough, G. R., and Emery, W., 1994: Precise AVHRR Image Navigation. IEEE Geosci. Rem. Sens (in press).
Derber, J. and A. Rosati, 1989: A Global Oceanic Data Assimilation System. J. Physical Oceanography, 19, 1333-1347.
Leetmaa, A. and M. Ji, 1989: Operational Hindcasting of the Tropical Pacific. Dynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans, 13, ... 465-490.
Reynolds, R. W., 1988: A real-time global sea surface temperature analysis. J. Climate, 1, 75-86.
Reynolds, R. W. and D. C. Marsico, 1993: An improved real-time global sea surface temperature analysis. J. Climate, 6, 768-774.
Reynolds, R. W. and T. S. Smith, 1993: Improved global sea surface temperature analyses. J. Climate, accepted subject to revisions.
Scientific Plan for the TOGA Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment, WCRP Publications Series, No. 3 Addendum, World Climate Research Programme.
Summary Report of the TOGA COARE International Data Workshop, Toulouse, France, 2 - 11 August 1994, TOGA COARE International Project Office, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, 170 pages.
TOGA COARE Operations Plan, Working Version September 1992, TOGA COARE International Project Office.
TOGA COARE Intensive Observing Period Operations Summary, TOGA COARE International Project Office, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
