Sea Surface Temperature Science Team Meeting
Coconut Grove, Florida, 2-4 November 2011
NASA Activities and
Sea Surface Temperature
Eric Lindstrom
NASA Science Mission Directorate
Earth Science Division
2 November 2011
Outline
• Background - Physical Oceanography Program and SST
Science Team
• Current Events – Opportunities
• History and Future Development
• Discussion Questions
Eric Lindstrom
NASA SST Science Team, Miami
Physical Oceanography Program Science Teams
(Organized around a measurement/parameter
rather than around a mission.) m
• Ocean Surface Topography (ROSES 11)
• Joint/CNES
• Project Scientists (Josh Willis/Juliette Lambin)
• Ocean Vector Winds (2010)
• International (2009)
• NASA Project Scientist (Ernesto Rodriguez)
• NASA Team Leader (Mark Bourassa, FSU)
• Ocean Salinity (2009, Phase 2- 2011)
• Part of Joint NASA/CONAE Aquarius/SAC-D
ScienceTeam
• Project Scientists (Gary Lagerloef/Sandra Torrusio)
• Sea Surface Temperature (2010)
• First SST ST Meeting 11/2010
• Team Leader (Peter Cornillon, URI  Andy Jessup, UW in
2012)
Eric Lindstrom
NASA SST Science Team, Miami
Physical Oceanography Program Support
• Physical Oceanography R&A (incl. NOPP) [~$10M]
• Proposals due end of June/Guidance mainly by US CLIVAR
• Ocean Surface Topography Science Team [~$6.5M]
• Proposals due end of October/Guidance unchanged
• SWOT SDT development in coming year [~$2M]
• Ocean Vector Winds Science Team [~$4.5M]
• Team recently selected/May need to reshape work to meet new
demands
• Sea Surface Salinity Science Team [~$2M~$5M]
• Phase-2 proposals (doubling team) selected after Aquarius
launch
• Division Pools (IDS, EOS, USPI) (SST) [~$2-5M]
• Ocean-Ice Shelf interaction may be next growth area
Total annual support ~$30M/yr for ~150 Projects
Eric Lindstrom
NASA SST Science Team, Miami
NASA SST-Science Team
Many funding routes to membership.
Scientists contributing to the previous activities are SST-ST members.
ISST-ST meeting in November 2009;
Follow-on work produced a WHITE PAPER;
First SST-ST meeting was held in November 2010.
A basis for recent activity over the past two years has been the WHITE PAPER,
produced by the Interim Sea Surface Temperature Science Team (ISSTST)
In June 2010.
The white paper addressed three areas:
 requirements placed on satellite derived SST products;
 a framework for the characterization of the error budget for
satellite-derived SST products; and
 recommendations for tasks that need to be undertaken to
improve satellite-derived SST products.
Eric Lindstrom, NASA SST Science Team, Miami
What has NASA folded into the SST-ST
Supporting new missions:
planning, preparation, implementation (example-
NPP/VIIRS);
Ongoing missions: calibration, validation, bias removal, optimization, noise
characterization >>>(examples- MODIS on T&oA, WindSAT, etc.);
Product generation and improvement;
Product management and delivery: PODAAC, GDAC;
NOPP interagency support of MISST;
PO funding for research and applications: significant use of SST data/products.
All the above are part of current NASA SST Science Team activities.
PO and NOPP current NASA funding-:
~16 projects, $3m/year (funding is comparable to other Science Teams).
Eric Lindstrom, NASA SST Science Team, Miami
Aquarius Launch, 10 June 2011
Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The Aquarius instrument will map the salinity at the
ocean surface, information critical to improving our
understanding of two major components of Earth's
climate system: the water cycle and ocean circulation.
Eric LindstromNASA SST Science
Team, Miami
SPURS 2012 Field Campaign
Science Question: What is controlling the upper ocean salinity?
This question is addressed with measurements from satellites, ships, drifting surface buoys &
profiling floats, gliders, AUVs and theoretical & numerical model simulations.
Motivation
The launch of the Aquarius/SAC-D satellite
motivates plans for a field campaign in the
salinity maximum region of the North Atlantic.
Sea Surface Salinity
Planning
Community workshop in December 2009
Workshop report published on the SPURS web site:
http://spurs.jpl.nasa.gov
Interagency/international collaborations being
established
Call for proposals in ROSES 2010
SPURS come in pairs; next in region with high precip.
Profiling Float Measurements of Wind Speed, Rainfall, and Near-Surface
Temperature and Salinity S. Riser, University of Washington
Depths < 3 meters
samples at 5 cm intervals
SBE-41CP
CTD
SBE STS
SeaBird surface temperature/salinity
sensor (STS) (250 profiles)
[ T  0.005 C; S  0.05 PSU ]
T
S
6/24/2009 - 7/15/2009 fast cycle sampling
Upper 5 m; t  2 hr; 0-150 m

T and S near the surface
relative to values at 15 dbar
(Iridium communications allow mission
parameters to be adjusted remotely)
NPP Launch
28 October 2011
Eric LindstromNASA SST Science
Team, Miami
NPOESS Preparatory Project
The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) will serve as a bridge between NASA’s current
Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites and the forthcoming series of Joint Polar
Satellite System (JPSS) satellites to:
extend key measurements to support monitoring of climate trends and global biological
productivity;
extend the measurement series initiated with EOS Terra and AQUA (a bridge to JPSS
[NPOESS]);
provide operational agencies early access to the next generation of operational sensors;
permit testing of the advanced ground operations facilities and validation of sensors and
algorithm while the current operational systems are still in place;
The five-instrument suite includes: the Visible/Infrared Imager
Radiometer Suite (VIIRS); the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS);
the Clouds and Earth Radiant Energy System (CERES); the
Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS); and the Ozone
Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS).
Sensors will collect data on atmospheric and sea surface temperatures, humidity
soundings, land and ocean biological productivity, and cloud and aerosol properties. Data
will be used for long-term climate and global change studies.
NASA SST-ST supports work focusing on establishing
and validating the CDR quality of VIIRS SST.
Eric Lindstrom
NASA SST Science Team, Miami
History and What’s New
ISST-ST meeting in November 2009, URI, RI;
Follow-on work produced a WHITE PAPER on 18 June 2010;
First SST-ST meeting was held in November 2010, Seattle, WA;
Joint DVWG/HL-TAG/ST-VAL Workshop, February/March 2011, Boulder, CO;
Aquarius Launch, 10 June 2011 (provides new opportunities);
GHRSST Meeting, June 2011, Edinburgh, UK (CEOS proposal);
NPP-VIIRS Launch, 28 October 2011 (provides new opportunities);
25th CEOS Plenary, 8-9 November 2011, Lucca, Italy (Freilich assumes SIT
Chair & GHRSST becomes Virtual Constellation in CEOS).
Eric Lindstrom, NASA SST Science Team, Miami
Perspectives, Issues, Discussion
How to interface with Ocean Salinity Science Team/Aquarius, especially with
regard to surface layer dynamics (requiring density and SSS info, not just
SST)?
Recognition that many multi-sensor activities are ongoing to optimize
the utility of individual parameters (a broader arena of Climate Data
Records).
Is it time to redefine NASA/Science Team relationship to GHRSST? How
best to make the most of the commonalities/complementarity?
Eric Lindstrom, NASA SST Science Team, Miami
BACKUP SLIDES
How Science Team Members can help
NASA (and GHRSST)
 Deliver scientific breakthroughs and well-cited publications.
 Keep NASA and the rest of the Science Team informed of scientific
breakthroughs and publications.
 Actively attend and support Science Team meetings.
 Respond as needed to requests from the Team Leader for scientific
and technical input.
 Enhance Interagency and international coordination.
Eric Lindstrom, NASA SST Science Team, Miami
ROSES 2011
(Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences)
Research not Product Generation
Two research themes are identified.
Analysis and interpretation of the ocean circulation using satellite and in situ data.
Expoitation of sea surface temperature products.
NASA is playing a central role in providing the next generation
of data products for sea surface temperature through the Group
on High-Resolution Sea surface Temperature (GHRSST).
Proposal are sought which utilize or exploit these data products
for innovative physical oceanography science.
This opportunity is NOT for development or improvement of data products.
$2.0 million/year for three years
10-15 awards
Eric Lindstrom, NASA SST Science Team, Miami
NASA SUPPORT OF GHRSST:
GDAC/RDAC
•
GLOBAL DATA ASEMBLY CENTER (GDAC) and REGIONAL DATA ASSEMBLY
Center (RDAC) Activities
•
Main Data Clearinghouse for all GHRSST Data Streams. Provides rolling archive
(30 days) for all GHRSST L2P data streams. GHRSST data streams managed
under the Data Management and Archive System (DMAS) of the PO.DAAC.
•
L4 Data Streams also archived at GDAC.
•
Provide user support through PO.DAAC User Services.
•
After 30 days data goes to Long Term Stewardship and Reanalysis Facility
(LTSRF) at NOAA/NODC.
•
Edward Armstrong acting chair of the Data Assembly and Systems Technical
Advisory group (DAS-TAG).
•
Jorge Vazquez acting chair of the Applications and user Services Technical
Advisory group (AUS-TAG).
•
Other related activities include archiving of L3 products, serve as RDAC (in
collaboration with University of Miami and Ocean Biology Processing Group) for
MODIS L2P data, fill ancillary fields (wind speed, etc.) and maintain MMR (master
metadata repository).
•
Maintain tools and services in support of GHRSST, including, L2 subsetter, “State
of the Ocean”, and POET for Level 4 data subsetting.
WindSAT multi-parameter effort at RSS
 SST, wind speed (several), water vapor (several), rain,
wind direction.
 Current data 2003-2010.
 Team is catching up to NRT data production & should
begin NRT by July 2011.
 Products include SST compared to GTS buoy network
data.
Eric Lindstrom, NASA SST Science Team, Miami
SST support under MEaSUREs program
 Making Earth Science Data Records for Use in Research
Environments (MEaSUREs) program (typical funding period 20082013) supports production of consistent (e.g., long-term) Earth science
data records, including SST data products.
 GAC and HRPT AVHRR Reprocessing Project (P. Cornillon, R.
Evans, K. Casey) develops a 28 year (1982-2010) global SST data set
at full GAC resolution (4km) and regional SST data sets at full HPRT
resolution (1km) made available in GHRSST L2P format.
 Multi-scale Ultra-high Resolution (MUR) SST (T.M. Chin, J. Vazquez,
E. Armstrong, A. Mariano) is a daily 1km-resolution global SST field
produced in GHRSST L4 format using multi-resolution and motioncompensated analysis techniques.
Eric Lindstrom, NASA SST Science Team, Miami
NOPP Partnerships (Interagency Funding)
NOPP Partnership for Skin SST
Award for the coordinated use of skin SST in satellite validation, including the TRMM
(Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) Microwave Radiometer (TMI), and the Advanced
Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) on Aqua.
NOPP – Multi-sensor Improved SST (MISST) Project
Coordinated US contribution to the international Group for High-Resolution Sea-Surface
Temperature project (Gentemann, C. L. et al., 2009).
The project has produced satellite SST data from nine satellites in an identical
format with ancillary information and estimates of measurement error. Use of these data in
global SST analyses has been improved through research into modeling of the ocean
surface skin layer and upper ocean diurnal heating. These data and research results have
been used by several groups within MISST to produce high-resolution global maps of
SSTs, which have been shown to improve tropical cyclone prediction. Additionally, the new
SSTs are now used operationally for marine weather warnings.
Already competed and selected. Implementation of multi-agency
funding is ongoing.
Eric Lindstrom, NASA SST Science Team, Miami