Validation of the ATSR in Australian Waters

The Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) was launched on the ERS-1 satellite on 17 July 1991. During the following six months, a concentrated effort was made to validate the sea surface temperature (SST) derived from data supplied by this new generation radiometer. Ship and aircraft radiometers collected "ground truth" data that were coincident with ATSR measurements and thus allowed a comparison of the surface and space measurements. A large proportion of the early vadidation data was obtained during four research vessel cruises in Australian waters, and a detailed analysis of those results is presented here. Ancillary data were collected to support the shipborne radiometer measurements and to allow further analyses beyond the important validation task. The validation results show that the ATSR instrument can provide SST within the design accuracy of 0.3 K. The results of the validation presented here are in good agreement with those reported elsewhere using other datasets. Further improvements in SST accuracy, perhaps to 0.2 K, may be expected with a more rigorous analysis of the data.