Rapid Oceanographic Data Gathering: Some Problems in Using Remote Sensing to Determine the Horizontal and Vertical Thermal Distributions in the Northeast Pacific Ocean.
Abstract
NOAA-6 satellite AVHRR data and AXBT data were collected in the Northeast Pacific Ocean in late 1980 as part of the Naval Postgraduate School-sponsored Acoustic Storm Transfer and Response Experiment which was in turn part of the U.S.-Canadian Storm Transfer and Response Experiment (STREX). Some of the problems in transferring AXBT geographical positions to satellite images were solved by designing a computer program with accuracies of less than 2 pixels. Thermal comparisons were made between AXBT, NOAA-6, and GOSSTCOMP data with the result that NOAA-6 data was on the average of 2.9 C colder than AXBT data and 3.2 C colder than GOSSTCOMP data. Linear regression methods reduced to 0.3 C the difference between NOAA-6 and AXBT data. Use of this method over a period of 15 days produced a mean error of 0.5 C. Although NOAA-6 cannot sense directly the subsurface thermal structure, it is excellent for observing surface manifestations of horizontal thermal features. Further investigation into using satellite data as the basis of an empirical relationship between the surface temperature and the subsurface vertical thermal structure is warranted. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1981
- Accession Number
- ADA111005
Entities
People
- Glenn W. Lundell
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School