Effect of sea surface temperature on sea surface brightness temperature measured by L-band microware radiometers

Abstract

Abstract The effect of sea surface temperature (SST) on sea surface brightness temperature measured by L-band microware radiometers is estimated in this paper. We found systematic SST dependence in Aquarius radar backscatter σ0, radiometer excess emissivity Δe as well as sea surface excess brightness temperature ΔTb. The influences of SST on σ0, Δe and ΔTb in cold water are much more bigger than that in warm water. The precision of the corrected measured flat sea surface bright temperature is improved significantly after correcting with SST.