Regional Fused Sea Surface Temperature System for the Gulf of Maine

High-resolution SST fields are crucial for estimating upper ocean circulation and air-sea fluxes such as heat transfer. Here we describe regional SST product for the Gulf of Maine, that derives SST fields using measurements from the geostationary operational environmental satellite (GOES) and analysis from the real-time global sea surface temperature (RTG SST) and the ocean surface temperature and ice (OSTIA) systems. This algorithm has been implemented into a prototype near-real time production system that, since May 2007, has produced SST fields four times per day on a 4-km grid. This system also provides daily validation data constructed by collocating estimated SST values with in situ measurements from buoys. The average bias in the domain from May to August 2007 is found to be 0.02 C. The system was applied to analyze diurnal variability in the region, which revealed significant amplitudes and complex spatial distribution.